Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha : Clockwork
by nullabutton
Summary: Hayate is given the command of the Joint Task Force. Her job: repel the thousands of Alicia clones invading the Bureau. Fate rushes to save her sisters from Hayate's wrath. Meanwhile Nanoha is hell bent on killing them all and put an end to Fate's miserable past once and for all, even if it means losing her own sanity.
1. 1: Bruteforcing the Multiverse

_(the invasion starts in ch5. have patience.)_

* * *

.

.

It's middle of the night at a barren landscape of a non-administrated world so obscure and insignificant it does not even have a name. A dimensional anomaly timidly appears slightly above the flat plateau of a small hill, resembling a pulsating sphere of about 2m radius.

A dozen or so wisp-like orbs, each about the size of a bowling ball made of sparkling golden light, emerge from this portal-like anomaly.

.

Far away from this rare event sits a small, unremarkable one-story rectangular building sitting middle of nowhere.

A lone low-rank TSAB monitoring agent, reading a book with his feet on the console desk, is alerted by a light 'Ding' notification sound. He takes his eyes off the book and examines the several holo-monitors displaying the world status. One of the monitors displays the local map, and a small yellow dot is blinking on it - a location quite far from his TSAB station.

"What's this?"

He pulls the holo-map display to the center of the desk so the enlarged 3D image hovers over the center. With his finger, the agent pokes at the blinking yellow dot. A message pops up with an accompanying synthesized voice.

"Space-Time anomaly detected."

The monitoring agent is curious.

"Well, well. It's been a while anything popped up. How big is this?"

A new message pops up in front of the agent.

"Trivial."

"OK, then."

The agent leans back on his chair and returns to reading.

.

As the wisp-like orbs move about probing the surrounding on the desolate hill their golden light illuminates the pitch-black darkness; like fireflies. Their purpose is not clear, but it appears they are curious about the world.

After half an hour or so of dashing around the plateau, they halt. One of the orbs fires off the magic that creates explosion mid-air; not damaging anything, but big enough of a ruckus to alert anyone monitoring the area's magical activities. Once the explosion clears, the orbs probe the surrounding again.

.

The agent is once again disturbed by a 'Ding', which is somewhat heavier and louder than the previous alert. There now is a red dot blinking over the yellow dot on the holo-map. The monitoring agent takes this a bit more seriously and leans over the desk.

"What's happening?"

A message pops up before his eyes. Once again, a synthesized voice helps him read:

"Magical discharge detected. Possible explosion(s)."

"Is it locals doing?" The agent asks.

The synthesized voice reads aloud a new popup message.

"Origin - unknown. Possibly foreign."

The agent stands up and grabs his coat.

"Keep the data-stream synced with my portable. I'm on my way."

He exists the station and enters his car parked just outside the building. As he starts the engine, several flat displays pop up and hover around the steering wheel, keeping the agent updated on the world status. The synth voice reminds the agent as he shifts the gear.

"Agent, please remember this is a non-administrated zone. Time-Space Administration Bureau interference is to be kept at a minimum."

"Yeah, yeah."

The car turns invisible as the monitoring agent drives off into the darkness.

.

The orbs halt their activities as they sense the invisible car appearing on the pitch-black horizon. Each ball of light rotates slightly as if they are facing the approaching car.

.

"Record this." The monitoring agent commands as he sees a blip of light on the horizon. The synth voice responds accordingly.

"Start recording."

"I see a smudge of yellow light on the horizon. 5 or 6km away." He squints. "Zoom in."

One of the displays shows the zoomed-in view up ahead.

"More like a blob of light balls - ground level."

.

The orbs start vibrating, still 'facing' the approaching agent.

.

"Oh, shit." The agent feels the tingling sensation of being probed.

"Warning. We are being probed."

"Yeah, I know!"

He steps on the break and the car stops abruptly.

"Threat assessment?" The agent asks his non-human companion.

"Not enough data."

The agent sighs, then nervously looks at the smudge of golden light on the distant horizon, his fingers drumming on the steering wheel.

.

The wisps, or orbs, one by one, face away from the cloaked agent far away. They group up and enter the dimensional anomaly. The last one to enter emits a magical discharge that interacts with the pulsating edge of the spherical anomaly, disturbing it, and thus closing it behind.

**#**

.

Meanwhile, in Midchilda, the capital world of Time-Space Administration Bureau, a man is running through dark alleys. He is on the run, constantly looking over his shoulder to see if anyone is following. The sound of the sirens and the flashing lights of the law enforcement vehicles diminish as he puts distance between himself and the pursuers.

He exits the alley and emerges onto a deserted main street. There is nobody walking around at this hour, and all the shops and buildings are locked down. The man slows down, breathing heavily. He stops in the shadow cast by the play of the clouds and the moonlight, leaning against the large window of a cafe, which fortunately has its light off. He tries to catch his breath. He looks around. The flashing lights are nowhere to be seen, and the sirens are so far away almost irrelevant. The man lets out a sigh of relief. He is dead tired from running.

'Tap'. 'Tap'. 'Tap'.

The man, startled, jumps up. He turns to see where the sound came from. Somebody is sitting alone at a window table inside the deserted cafe, tapping on the window. The face is hidden by the shadow, but thanks to the moonlight he can see a pair of custom-built pistols laid on the table He instantly recognizes those. He's heard about these particular pistols and their owner; mostly about the latter.

A feminine hand appears on the table, motioning the man to enter and sit down. Defeated, he shuffles in. The cafe door is not locked as expected. The man reluctantly sits down across the table opposite to the figure in the shadow. He can't see the face, but can just make out the silhouette of a twin-tailed female. The head in the shadow corks a bit.

"Hello. Thanks for not running away." The figure speaks in an honest tone. The man shakes his head.

"Of all the Enforcers in the multiverse, it has to be you…I give up."

He is sure the face in the shadow grinned. The man leans back on his chair, fatigue catching up. He sets his hands onto the table in abandonment, but very careful not to touch the pistols. The head in the shadow corks a bit again.

"Cuff?"

"No, miss. No need." Answers the man, meaning it.

"Good. Thank you. I'll tell the judges you were cooperative. That could get some months off your sentence." She carefully turns the pistols on the table such that the barrels stop pointing at the man. A gesture of absolute confidence and dominance.

"Thank you, miss. Now, please call your colleagues. Let me just rest a bit in the meantime." The man shuts his eyes, listening to the lady across the table making a call to the agents.

They have been sitting there in silence for a minute or so when a call comes for the Enforcer sitting across the table. Something about a dimensional anomaly in a world the man has never heard of.

**#**

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It's a bright late morning the next day, and the monitoring agent huffs and puffs and grumbles as he walks up the hill on foot. He doesn't seem to mind returning to the scene of last night's curious event but finds it bothersome nonetheless.

The top of the hill is a small clearing of the plateau, on which stands a twin-tailed woman, in her early to mid thirties, clad in a grey-black double-breasted wool coat, white skirts, and brown leather boots over knitted black knee-highs.

The mini-explosion last night left a singe on the soil she is standing on. She is intensely staring at the void above the ground where the anomaly had appeared.

A sudden wind blows across and the lady's coat flaps, revealing two pistols holstered at her waist.

"Good afternoon, madam. Are you the Enforcer from the Capital?"

The woman turns around, beams a smile, and extends hand after returning the salute from the agent.

"Good afternoon, agent. Enforcer Lanster. Teana Lanster." They shake hands. "Sorry to impose myself on you with such short notice. I understand it is actually your off-duty hour after an all-nighter, yes?"

"No problem, madam. I didn't expect you to be arriving here before I did, though."

"I'm an early bird."

The agent motions to the surrounding which is nothing.

"But I'm curious what brings you out here. I mean...yeah, it was odd, but not really...a MAJOR incident."

"To be honest with you, I don't even know what I'm looking for."

The agent raises his eyebrows.

"It's a pet project of mine because I have this...hunch." Adds Teana with a quick smile.

"Well, that's good enough for me. It's quite lonely out here all by myself."

The agent and the Enforcer laugh. He starts to go over the last night's incident as he pulls out a holo-display to show the lady the recordings from the last night.

**#**

.

In a quiet corner of Cranagan, the capital city of Midchilda sits a large compound belonging to Sail Force. One building, in particular, is so attention-repelling one would not notice it if not for the sign that reads "Time-Space Administration Bureau Naval Intelligence Directorate".

A vintage motorbike passes through the compound security check and enters the parking lot. Once parked at a "Guest" spot, orange-brown haired Teana takes off her helmet, putting on the Executive Office issue beret.

She enters the Naval Intelligence building, walks past another security check in the spacious yet rather empty lobby, and takes an elevator to the second top floor.

She exits the elevator to yet another lobby, which is occupied by a young naval lieutenant sitting behind a neat desk next to a double door. The lieutenant checks the time.

"Hello, madam. Miss Lanster from Executive Office?"

"Yes, lieutenant. Teana Lanster. Is Deputy Director in?"

"Yes, madam. I will let him know you are here." The lieutenant stands and knocks on the double door before opening. He enters two steps in, salutes, and announces the arrival of the guest. A manly voice spills out of the room.

"Oh, she's here? Please do show her in, lieutenant."

Teana walks into the office, not waiting to be shown in.

Deputy Director is a handsome dark-haired man, in his mid-thirties, dressed in his impeccable Sail Force admiral's uniform. Currently, he is the acting director of the directorate but insists on being addressed by his official title, Deputy Director. The Bureau has tried many times to fill the vacant chief spy position, but all the candidates have declined, not wanting to risk being overshadowed by the impressively decorated deputy. The man himself has declined many times the Director title, as he believes he still lacks the critical 'punch'.

"Really? Just a few steps walk, and we have to go through this formality?" says Teana.

Deputy Director stands up, walks around his desk and greets Teana with a warm smile.

"Hey. I don't want to upset my lieutenant."

"Thank you, sir." The lieutenant acknowledges the effort.

Teana and Deputy Director hug and air-kiss as the lieutenant leaves the office. They sit at the coffee table in front of the desk.

"Long time no see. How have you been?" He asks first.

"I'm busy as always. How are the twins?

"Ah, they are at that teen stage...you know what I mean. Oh hey, how is everyone coping with the restructuring?"

Teana scoffs.

"It will take more time for everyone to get used to it. After all, we got yanked out of Sail Force..." She shakes head and continues.

"Anyway your sister has done an excellent job keeping things together... Everyone is pretty happy."

That brings a smile on the man's face. The lieutenant brings in the coffee, sets them up on the table, and leaves.

"Everyone looks up to her, so you should be really proud." Teana adds.

"Maybe I should go back?"

"Well, we'd be glad to have you back EX-Enforcer Harlaown."

Deputy Director Chrono Harlaown chuckles.

"Oh, you flatter me. So...are you here to see your senpai or the Naval Intelligence officer?" Chrono inquires.

"I'm afraid it's the latter, senpai."

She activates her device to display a holo-image. The image shows a smudge of golden light in the dark on the distant horizon. She pops out another image, which is a zoomed-in version of the previous one. The smudge of golden light now appears to be a blob of light orbs. Deputy Director examines the images silently.

"It goes like this. A dimensional anomaly appears out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere, these things come out, make some noise...nothing too harmful, but just enough to grab the attention of a local TSAB monitoring agent, and then...they go back." Teana explains.

"That's it?"

The Enforcer pops out a dozen or so more such images.

"And this has been happening here and there...so far only in the non-administrated worlds, but at seemingly random places and random times."

"Random occurrence of an activity that follows a protocol..." Chrono comments, to which Teana nods.

"Exactly. There is more; These things...these light balls. They make some noise so of course, the local agent goes to investigate."

"Naturally."

"And it looks like these light balls are capable of detecting and probing cloaked mages."

"What makes you think that?" Chrono is curious.

"All the local agents I interviewed told me that they sensed the probing scan as they approached the anomaly. I crosschecked against their device logs and the story checks out; Directed mage scan." Showing the interview transcripts she continues.

"The monitoring agents are mandated to keep their presence hidden from the locals there. Which means, when they go out to investigate, they are cloaked."

"The light balls can't probe what they can't see, but since they do, they must be able to detect cloaked mages. I get it...but the agents use pretty weak cloak magic, though." Chrono comments.

"Yeah...Still, I have a bad feeling about this."

"I think I know why, but please go on."

"The light balls deliberately call out for the agents, and when the agents get there all they do is just scan and get out."

Chrono muses about it.

"Certain something, which is magically proficient enough to pierce through TSAB cloak magic, is gauging the Bureau's strength."

"At places where we are weak in presence."

"Now I see why you came to me. Sorry but Naval Intelligence has nothing on this."

Teana looks disappointed.

"But these things must come from somewhere."

"Naval Intelligence is not an all-knowing, all-seeing god. I say there are two possibilities. One. They are coming from where we don't have our eyes on. Two. They are coming from within, right under our noses."

"I can deal with the latter, but not the former. What do we do?"

To this Chrono scratches his head.

"Yeah, that would be a worlds-collide case where we know nothing about the world we are about to collide." He calls out to his lieutenant to get the car ready. "Let's go talk to an expert. We have a consultancy contract with Yuuno."

**#**

.

Teana and Chrono are sitting side by side at a large table situated in a study room of Infinity Library, patiently waiting as the Chief Librarian, Professor Yuuno Scrya, about the same age as Deputy Director, sitting across the two, goes over the holo-documents and images arranged in front of him.

.

"This is most interesting." Says Professor after an intense reading session.

"Yuuno, what's your opinion on this?" asks the man who pays the consultancy fee.

"This group of light balls...orbs? Anyway, these look like some kind of wide-area surveillance magic."

"We at the Office think so, too." Teana agrees.

Professor is intrigued.

"If their purpose was only to lure and probe the local TSAB mage, they would do so immediately after coming out of an anomaly. But they are not doing that.

Do we know what they do before our monitoring agents arrive on the scene?"

Teana checks her files.

"No, but my guess is... they look around?"

"Probably sampling the elements of the world they are visiting...I mean that's what I'd do. Have they ever appeared in the same world twice?"

"That's...a question mark. There are no such "reported" cases, but you know TSAB does not have agents in every single world." Teana answers.

"True, true. Let's assume for now that they haven't appeared in the same world twice. What does that tell us?"

Chrono answers this time.

"Systematic search by a process of elimination."

"Exactly. That means some form of memory - ticking off tick boxes. That's record-keeping and querying."

"And communication... that is if whatever or whoever sending out these orbs are not working all alone. But Professor, we could also say the same thing about any mage in the TSAB worlds." Teana comments.

"Well, then this whole thing becomes just some mage poking around the worlds. Is that a crime?" Yuuno points out.

"No."

Chrono leans over the table, slightly irritated.

"OK, guys, for the sake of my job let's say it's coming from the outside. What does this intelligent, sentient whatever it is...what does it want? What's it looking for?"

Professor points to one of many holo-displays in front of him.

"I don't think this has caught your eyes, but look at this. This is a log from an agent's device when he was probed. You see on top of the general scan, it's hitting every port regardless closed or open."

Teana had, in fact, spotted it, but what with the whole thing being a pet project, she had not given it much thought. Buried under a mountain of other records, there is a minuscule detail. She sees it now. A port is open...and Professor points to the log from the same agent's vehicle. The probe scan had traveled upstream through the channel. Then it repeats.

"Holy shit...how did I miss this?" Teana puts her hands over her head.

"Here, the agent's vehicle was acting as a relay between his device and the monitoring station. Why is that?" Professor is honestly curious.

"Simple. For a better network quality and a farther reach. It's a standard setup."

"I see...anyway, crosschecking with the log from the station..." Professor browses through the documents. "OK, here it is."

The probe had once again traveled upstream. It was again hitting all the ports, but couldn't go any further.

"Makes sense. Monitoring stations in the non-administrated worlds are pretty much on their own." Teana explains.

Professor smirks a bit.

"Note the time stamp on the station log...and this recorded video. When it becomes clear it cannot go any further up, they leave."

**#**

.

Professor Scrya is speaking in front of an audience, mainly comprised of men and women in armed forces uniforms. Chrono has booked a large conference room in Sail Force HQ for this occasion. The meeting is chaired by Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lindy Harlaown, a long-haired naval admiral of impeccable career, about the age of late fifties or early sixties. She has distinctive dotted marks on her forehead of which nobody really talks about.

"What do you think is the purpose behind all this, Professor?"

"The very fact that they are doing this is proof - it shows whoever sending out the surveillance at least knows about TSAB and the Bureau's presence in various worlds." Professor continues his analysis.

"Scanning the network would be an attempt to determine a node's importance. Basically, the more sub-nodes sending data to you, the more important you are...and I believe that's the reason why we haven't seen the orbs appearing in the same world more than once. They have so far failed to locate sufficient presence of TSAB in the worlds they have visited."

He looks around the gathered generals and officers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe, an intelligent and magic capable civilization is trying to make contact with the Bureau. It knows about TSAB but doesn't know where to go. Hence it's bruteforcing the multiverse in search of us."

Sample the local elements, and look for a trace of development or civilization. Survey the agents and their connected network, and determine if the world contains a sufficient number of important people with enough density. 'At least, that's how I would do it.' Yuuno thought.

"Madam Admiral, Executive Office would like to add there remains the possibility this surveillance is carried out by one or more mages residing within TSAB jurisdiction, who may or may not purport to identify, with or without malicious intentions, the worlds where TSAB presence is either thin or non-existent." Teana butts in much to Lindy's amusement. 'Did she really just say that in one breath?'

"Naval Intelligence?" Chairwoman of the JCS tosses the ball to her son.

"We are all in agreement that TSAB presence is being probed. Professor summarized it perfectly; somebody is bruteforcing the multiverse… However, our assessments diverge thereafter."

Diverge they do. Professor Scrya believes it's an unknown civilization trying to make contact with the Bureau, preferably a higher ranking official as the first contact than a mere local monitoring agent.

On the other hand, Executive Office thinks the whole thing is either a mishap of a curious mage or a conspiracy for a later crime - some drug farm and/or an uprising staging platform.

"Madam chairwoman, Naval Intelligence is of the opinion that an unknown force outside our charted maps is cataloging TSAB weak spots for possibly a later invasion."

"In summary: we don't know?" Lindy scoffs.

Yuuno saves his two friends from embarrassment.

"You are right, madam, we do not know because we lack the information. In that regard, I'd like to propose a test that would determine the nature of this surveillance and the ones behind it."

He can tell he's got the attention.

"Please, go on, Professor."

"I propose we come down on an anomaly site in numbers. Perhaps a mixture of people representing each branch of TSAB. With sufficient mage ranks and numbers, the mission control on the other side will know they have caught the attention of the authority."

Lindy thinks about it. If it is a "We come in peace" mission as Professor Scrya believes, then someone of an Ambassador status would emerge. And if it is a troublemaker or some criminal gang, facing the authority at the other end of the anomaly would definitely discourage them to continue their activities in the future. And finally, if it really is a reconnaissance prior to an invasion, given the nature of 'reconnaissance' mission itself they are likely to retreat immediately and reconsider their options. She is about to give her opinion, but her son speaks first.

"That's a very good idea, Professor. Naval Intelligence seconds this, but we do not know when and where the next anomaly appearance will be."

'He's right', Lindy agrees. Yuuno's proposal requires keeping Bureau officials on stand-by indefinitely. Chrono continues

"I can reassign up to four companies of my field operation troops, madam. With your authorization, Naval Intelligence will station them scattered around, ready to teleport to the nearest detected anomaly in a reasonable time."

"The Office seconds Deputy Director, madam." Says Teana on behalf of Executive Office.

"Sounds good to me." Lindy is about to close the session, but she notices a raised hand in the back of the room.

"Yes, lieutenant general?"

A Ground Armament Service lieutenant general rises from her seat. She is rather diminutive for a soldier, in her mid-thirties, wearing a brown uniform jacket and skirt matching the color of her bob cut hair. She was called into the meeting on a 'need to know' basis, but not necessarily for active participation.

"Madam Chairwoman, with your permission Capital Defense Corps would like to voice its opinion on the proposed operation."

"Go on."

"Thank you, madam. Yuu-" she almost calls Professor by his first name. "-Professor, if I understand correctly, the anomalies are being opened and closed at will, am I correct?"

"That is correct." Yuuno nods.

"So, the major part of this plan is to let the gate operator on the other side, to know that on this side of the dimensional travel, here we have a significant presence of TSAB authority and officials. Correct?"

"In essence, yes. Hopefully, that will lead to them sending an envoy."

Clearly, the commander of Capital Defense is not interested in that.

"Let's assume for the moment the worst-case scenario as suggested by Naval Intelligence...so from the other side's perspective, when they survey our side and face a significant Bureau presence and activities, wouldn't they think they have opened a gate pretty close to the heart of an Administrated world?"

"Oh god..." Chrono lets out a groan. The general continues.

"And since they can freely open up more..."

Lindy has heard enough.

"Alright, thank you, lieutenant general. You heard her, Deputy Director. The operation is a go, but under no circumstances, you are to proceed if the anomaly is anywhere near a substantially populated world. Administrated zones, especially…" she adds after a thought. "Executive Office is to instruct all monitoring agents to stay out unless confirmed and approved by the Office."

.

The meeting is over, and everyone packs up to leave. Yuuno, clearly displeased, comes over to confront Chrono.

"You bastard, you never told me it would be a military meeting. I was preparing for the Cultures people."

"They can come after we are done with threat assessment." Chrono tries to brush it off.

Teana walks over from her seat.

"Wow, it went really well. And that was brilliant. Nice job, Professor."

Yuuno is not happy at all.

"Really? A previously unknown, intelligent, sentient, magic capable civilization wants to meet us, and the first thing you guys do is hijack my peaceful proposal, and turn the whole thing into a military operation? With armed soldiers as our representatives? What is wrong with you people?!"

"Hey, the last time you went and did a cultural archaeological historical civilization thing of yours, people got killed. Of course, I'm sending my soldiers first." Says Chrono.

"Oh, that's low. That is so low."

The three are interrupted by the lieutenant general running over, hugging, air-kissing, greeting everyone.

"Teana! Yuuno! and Chrono! Ah~ It's so good to see you guys. And you boys, cut it out already."

She turns to Chrono.

"Where's your sister? I thought Fate would be here."

"She's on vacation with her family. .ar.i." Chrono taunts.

"What? They went to Uminari without telling me? I don't believe this! There will be a reckoning!" the general shakes her fist in the air. "Not that I would have the time to go myself." She adds.

"Chief was working non-stop, so the Bureau forced a vacation on her." Says Teana. Her tone indicates she holds her Chief in high regard. Capital Defense Corps Commander is clearly envious.

"Damn, Executive Office has it good."

**#**

.

She is woken up by a distant voice from the side. An old woman's voice approaches from the right side, distant yet coming closer.

"Fail...fail...fail...fail..."

Each 'Fail' is followed by a whirling sound, resembling that of an electric drill, accompanied by a muffled scream and whimpering of a younger female voice.

The person blinks, and tries to turn to see what's happening, only to find out the entire body, including the head, is restrained on some hard flat surface. There is no choice but to stare at the simple ceiling and to whimper at the painful screams coming closer and closer.

A hooded woman appears from a side of the field of view. Without even giving a glance, she passes.

"Fail...fail...fail...fail..."

A masked figure appears in the view. The grey-black mask is rather flat, covering the entire face except for the holes for the eyes and the mouth. A thick red X is painted across the grey-black surface. The figure in view appears to be wearing a dirty black overall.

As the hooded woman's voice moves away, what appears to be the same mask is lowered onto the person's face, covering it. The person jolts in pain. The resulting scream drowns the sounds of electric drill and tooling, as the mask is bolted onto the face.

When it's done, the masked figure in front of the view holds up a brush dipped in red paint. Breathing heavily the person sees the motion of a big X being drawn over the mask. The masked figure leans over and whispers in a young woman's voice.

"Don't show her your face. Ever."

**#**

.

A Forward Observation Ship, named Lily, belonging to Naval Intelligence, sails through the space-time at the edge of a frontier world. It has been some uneventful days since the order came. Fortunately, the crew and the guests onboard are getting along just fine.

A young female operator spotting naval ensign rank notices a bleep on her console.

"Captain, a space-time deformation detected in Sector 8."

The Captain, a woman in her mid-thirties, sits up in her captain's seat in the center of the command bridge.

"Bring it up on the main display." The Captain demands.

"Aye aye, Captain. Deformation is confirmed, madam. Path forming in progress."

"Can we trace the path back to the origin?"

Another operator, a male petty officer, answers.

"We'd have to wait until the full path is formed, Captain. My sensors are ready to commence as soon as this side of the gate appears."

"Right. How long do we wait?" asks the Captain

"Approximately 20 minutes for the path, and after that another 20 minutes for the dimensional surface tear." Answers the first Operator.

"Excellent. That gives us enough time to confirm with the Mainland. Tell our guests to get ready."

.

In Lily's passenger compartment, a platoon sergeant, armed and in combat gears, walks through the hallway banging on the doors.

"Get your ass up boys! LT wants us ready in 10. Assemble at the teleportation bay!"

.

Naval Intelligence's mission control room springs into action as people take their stations, bringing up holo-displays relevant to their responsibilities. Deputy Director Chrono Harlaown hurries into the room.

"What gives?"

Mission Control's Senior Operator salutes.

"Sir, Lily reports an anomaly forming in her Sector 8. Lily is Captain Lowran's ship."

"Griffith or Lucino?"

"The latter, sir."

"Lucino? OK. Where's her Sector 8?" Chrono demands to know.

A large map appears in the center of the room.

"Oh..." Chrono is undecided. The anomaly has appeared in a non-administrated world, which unfortunately borders an administrated one.

"Yes, sir. It's far...but not quite far enough. A grey area."

Chrono thinks about it for some seconds. He needs a second opinion.

"Let...me get a second opinion. If she thinks it's OK, we are OK." He makes a call to someone.

A hologram face of Capital Defense Corps Commander appears, hovering in front of Chrono.

"Hey, Chrono. What's up?"

"Hey, Hayate, we got a report of an anomaly forming. I'm sending the map."

The hologram face, apparently named Hayate, examines the map she has just received.

"I'm not very happy with the location. What do you think?" asks Chrono.

"Hm...It's quite a distance, yes, but still uncomfortably close to an administrated zone. Better be safe than sorry."

"Alright. Thanks." Ending the call, Chrono turns to the Senior Operator. "She's right. It's a no go." He starts to leave the room. "Let's hope the local agent does as told."

.

Inside Lily's Bridge, Captain Lucino Lowran ends the communication with the Mission Control. She shakes her head.

"All crew, stand down. It's a no go. Strictly observation only."

.

At Lily's teleportation bay, a platoon of armed soldiers is standing in rows and columns. The platoon sergeant, after having a brief conversation with his superior, walks up in front of the platoon. He raises a hand, and swivels it, making a 'turn back' sign. The men disperse grumbling.

.

"Anomaly confirmed. Gate is open, Captain." The ensign announces. Lucino nods to the petty officer.

"Aye. Commencing path tracing. Captain, it's a long narrow path. Our ping's gonna deteriorate. I don't think we will have any meaningful data out of this, madam." The petty officer is not very pleased with what he sees on his console.

"Well, we try anyway. How long before the surveillance orbs arrive?"

The ensign answers with her eyes glued to the display in front of.

"They are pure mana blobs with no mass, so should be able to travel several hundred times faster than a body... and... there they are, Captain." She points at something on her display. At her side, the petty officer throws his hands in defeat.

"Captain, I'm sorry, but tracing is no good. Path quality is just too bad."

"How bad are we talking about?"

"It's like sending a runner down an inch wide rocky cliff side path in the hope that he returns."

"Oh, that bad..." The captain is sympathetic. "Let's hope we have something better next time."

**#**

.

Two weeks have passed and it's an evening at the Harlaown residence. Lindy and Chrono are laying down dishes and cutlery on the dining table. A pot is boiling on the stove, and the oven is running. The sound of two teens, a boy, and a girl, playing in the living room can be heard. A woman's voice, presumably their mom, tells them to stop messing around. Chrono pokes his head out to see what's going on in the living room. He comes back shaking his head.

In the past two weeks, Naval Intelligence has had three no-gos. Six times it was too far away out of reach of the teleportation range. Four times, the men arrived on the scene too late.

"I bet those men must hate you by now...all that running around..." Lindy comments.

"Oh, you bet. The company COs are not very happy with their platoons scattered all over the place." He sighs. "And the guys are not happy because...well they are soldiers so they hate 'the Man' anyway."

Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chuckles. "At least you are 'the Man'. I'm the..."

"Alright, alright, mom. Jeez, I forgot who I was talking to."

.

The doorbell chimes and the two walks out of the kitchen to greet their guests. The teen twins are excited, yelling "auntie, auntie" and "Vivio!". Joyful shrieks fill the house with lots of hugging, air-kissing, and smiling. Chrono greets the three guests with a warm smile.

"Hey, ladies. How was your vacation?"

**#**

.

The person with a full face mask walks behind another masked person in black overall, marching in a group of people wearing the same masks and clothes, with unkempt blonde hairs cut short. The only differences are their heights: from kid like to fully grown adult. The group shuffles down a dirty hallway, and passes another group, masked and dressed in the exact same manner, going the opposite direction. The other group is carrying baskets filled with what appear to be some root vegetables with dirt still on them.

The group passes by several doors. The rooms behind those doors look pretty much the same, with bare minimum appliances and furniture. It is some kind of dormitory.

The person's group exits the building into a desolate barren land filled with nothing but rocks and weeds. The weeds are pulled, and the roots are cut and trimmed and thrown into baskets. The sky is violet with swirling clouds. The harrowing wind blows over the rolling field, kicking up dust. The dormitory sits amidst a large city like ruin, ancient. Groups of masked people dig through mounds of rubble and dirt, some discharging light magic over the area, trying to find something. Anything.

The group marches on up a hill, where old pillars and walls have crumbled and collapsed and now scattered around the hilltop. About a hundred masked people of varying heights are assembled in rows and columns, each carrying a polearm-like staff as tall as themselves, facing a circle formed by a dozen or so masked people. The person's group joins the rank, and somebody hands the person a staff.

The people in the circle are concentrating, casting a space-time interference magic. A tear on the dimensional surface appears, grows, and deepens, swirls and elongates to a pipe-like path that extends to a faraway world. One masked mage steps up to the space-time anomaly, casting a spell that summons wide-area surveillance orbs; the orbs illuminating the wasteland under the violet sky with their golden lights.

The person looks around. On the vast rolling land there are tens and hundreds of dormitory-like buildings scattered across the landscape under the thunderous sky, the buildings contrasting the ancient city ruin they are standing on; thousands and thousands of masked people toiling their lives away in this dead land.

**#**

.

"Captain, space-time distortion in Sector 12." The ensign alerts the Captain. Lucino immediately springs into action.

"Sector 12 is a go zone! Notify the Mainland, and get the platoon ready." She is visibly excited.

"Dimensional path forming initiated, Captain. Expected gate opening in 40 minutes."

.

Teana sits in front of a neatly arranged wooden desk, giving her reports. Behind the desk sits Chief Enforcer, a blonde woman in her mid to late thirties, wearing the same gray-black Executive Office uniform as Teana, listening to her junior officer's report.

"...and that was taken care of without much problems. Moving on..." Beeps from her device interrupt her report. "sorry, Boss. I have to take this."

"It's alright." Chief Enforcer motions Teana to take the call.

A hologram face of the Naval Intelligence's Senior mission Operator pops up.

"Miss Lanster, we have a positive from Lily. It's a go."

"Thank you. Will you kindly arrange me an entree clearance to your teleportation bay?" Teana pauses and gives her boss a 'Can I?' look. Chief Enforcer returns a thumbs up with a smile. "I will be jumping to your bay directly, and from there I wish to use the long-distance teleport to Lily."

.

The Naval Intelligence's Mission Control room is buzzing with activities.

"Sir, a request from Enforcer Lanster for permission to use our teleport. She intends to board Lily and go down to the site with our men." Reports the Senior Operator.

Chrono has just rushed into the room. He takes his jacket off, sitting down at a vantage seat; getting ready to oversee the operation.

"It's her case, to begin with. Permission granted."

Captain Lowran's face appears in front of him.

"Deputy Director, path forming is in progress. About 30 minutes till gate appearance."

"Good. Captain, to be clear...you do understand you will be overseeing what's possibly the first contact with another magic capable civilization?" Chrono's tone carries the 'you know what I mean' expectation.

"Yes, sir. I will ask before I shoot."

"Exactly. By the way, Teana will be joining the platoon."

Lucino's face lits up.

"Oh really? Gosh, haven't seen her for ages."

"Yeah, Lucino, you take good care of her. If something happens to Teana, Fate will tear your ship apart."

They chuckle at the thought.

**#**

.

Teana stumbles out of the portal that opened in Lily's teleportation bay. She takes a few steps forward, gets down on her fours, and throws up on the platoon leader's boots.

"Yes, madam. A mighty fine day, madam." He is clearly disturbed.

"Come on, miss. Lieutenant can't be that ugly." The platoon sergeant tries to lighten up to mood. The soldiers assembled in the bay let out cheers and hoots. Teana stands up quickly, returns salute from the Platoon Leader.

"Sorry, lieutenant. After all these years I still can't get used to a long-distance jumping."

This raises the platoon leader's curiosity.

"Is that so? Pardon my rudeness, madam, but may I ask about your background?"

"Sure. 386th Battalion, then Riot Force 6...that's where I met Captain Lowran...and the Office, then Special Duty Section 6, then back to the Office."

This impresses the Naval Intelligence lieutenant.

"Pardon my language, but holy shit. Were you with the White Devil or the Lightning?"

"The devil one, yeah. Lightning is now my boss at the Office, though."

The platoon sergeant turns to his men.

"You heard the lady! Despite the mighty impressive entrance, she packs more balls than all of you combined. Respect!" The men respond with loud voices.

.

A holo-image of Captain Lowran's face appears in front of Teana.

"Hey, Teana! Welcome aboard."

Teana excuses herself from the men to talk to Lucino in private.

"Hey, Lucino. Nice boat!" this triggers Lucino.

"A ship, Teana! Not a boat!" she shakes her head. "Sorry I can't leave the Bridge right now. Just wanted to say hello before you go down there."

"Fine, fine. We talk later when I get back."

"Our boys are good men. You listen to them, and you should be fine. Good luck!"

.

It's time to get down to the anomaly site. The platoon leader approaches Teana.

"We are making the jump now, madam. I'm afraid it's going to be another long jump for you."

"Oh, god." Teana shivers at the prospect of another long jump. The lieutenant, being a gentleman, offers his arm. Teana takes it eagerly with a smiley thank you.

The sergeant barks to the men.

"Platoon, we are jumping now. First squad goes first! You fuck up, you are out of the draw. You make fool of yourself in front of the lady, you are out of the draw. Is that clear?"

"What draw, sergeant?" asks his commanding officer passing by.

"Licking your boots, sir!"

.

"Platoon is teleporting, sir. 10 minutes till gate opening." The Senior Mission Operator reports.

"Good. Remember: Communication with Lily is to be limited to a single channel only." Chrono reminds everyone.

Mission Control relays the directive to Lily.

"Single channel, aye. Closing all other ports. Be advised that's a serious limitation on data bandwidth." The voice of Lily's operator echoes in the room. Chrono sits back in his chair, watching the tactical feed from the ship many many worlds away.

"Your show, Lucino."

.

The platoon is assembled in front of the pulsating dimensional distortion that is getting larger and larger.

"And remember. All comms are to be relayed through my device." The platoon leader reminds everyone.

The soldiers disperse and take up positions, Teana going with the sergeant and his squad. The lieutenant and his first squad stand at attention, facing the anomaly. Teana can feel the excited anticipation among the men.

The soldiers gasp as a dimensional travel gate starts wobbling. It is getting larger.

.

"Captain, dimensional surface tear detected. They are sliding the gate open, madam." The ensign reports to her Captain.

"Maintain comms to a single channel to lieutenant only. Remember our goal is to make him appear superior in the network hierarchy." Lucino turns to the petty officer.

"Can we ping this?"

"Negative, Captain." He shakes his head apologetically.

The ensign starts the countdown. "Mana blips in the path. Surveillance orbs emerging in 10, 9, 8,…"

.

Down at the site in the unnamed world in Lily's sector 12, a dozen or so golden orbs emerge from the dimensional anomaly that is a gate to the path formed in the space-time field. At first, the orbs remain motionless in front of the platoon leader and his men, but soon proceed to survey the immediate area, sampling the world's elements. The Naval Intelligence officer steps forward.

"Welcome. I'm an officer of Naval Intelligence Directorate, Time-Space Administration Bureau. Would you kindly identify yourself, and state your intention?"

The surveillance orbs freeze in space again. Teana feels the tingling sensation of being probed.

"We are being probed." She whispers to the sergeant.

"Urgh, I feel so naked."

**#**

.

The person notices there is a commotion around the anomaly. The circle of mages maintaining the anomaly gate is in a heated discussion. The person watches in silence, as the mage who summoned and sent out the surveillance orbs through the dimensional travel path talks to another masked mage, who nods and flies off to the large pyramid-like structure towering over the land.

.

At the anomaly site in the world designated as sector 12, the sergeant whispers to Teana.

"What do you think is happening, madam?"

The golden orbs have remained motionless for some time. Teana is about to lose her patience, but the platoon leader is standing there patiently, with a little smile, giving off a 'take your time as much as you need' expression. What a gentleman, Teana notes to herself.

"I'm guessing...they are calling for a superior."

.

The person hears something flying in very fast. With a whoosh sound, the hooded woman appears among the circle of mages at the anomaly gate. She talks with the masked mage who's in charge of the surveillance orbs. The hooded woman dips a hand into the anomaly, taking control of the orbs over from the junior mage.

After a brief period of disorienting visions and sounds, she is in an unfamiliar world. Through the sense of the orbs, she examines her new surroundings; its soil, its air, its sky.

"I don't know this world." She mutters to herself. The hooded woman shifts her attention to the men spread out across her field of vision. A small group of soldiers? Why are they here?

"A mere lieutenant...a patrol?" Her gaze wanders around and she spots Teana among the soldiers.

"No...that uniform...Miss Enforcer, what are you doing out here with these men?" She looks around: left, right, up, and finally far far into the distance. A ship.

"I see... How cute…"

.

The hooded woman is back to her unknown world of the violet sky. She abruptly turns around to face the one who sent out the orbs.

"How disappointing…You let them fool you! !"

She slaps the masked mage hard, sending the mage flying past the innocent person. As the victim hurls past with a scream, the loose staff hits the person's face, cracking the mask with a loud sound. The person stumbles, clearly shocked and in pain, but stands to attention nevertheless, whimpering slightly.

"You fools! You've been deceived!" The hooded woman rages as the minions cower in fear. She points to a nearby masked mage.

"You! There's a ship not afar. Destroy it. Show them mocking me like this won't go unpunished." She points to another. "You go punish those men!"

She dips one hand into the anomaly again, raises another in the air, siphoning the ambient magic, channeling into the trans-dimensional travel path.

.

On Lily's Bridge, the ensign operator panics.

"Captain! Massive ping coming up through our channel with the lieutenant!"

Lucino springs up from her seat.

"Shit, they saw through the hierarchy. Cut comms to the Mainland! We can't allow it to go beyond us."

"Mana surge in the path! Captain, the path is branching out." The petty officer reads from his console, urgency in his voice.

"What?! Where to?"

"It's heading our way... Captain, it's too fast!"

.

Sitting in the Mission Control, Chrono drums his fingers on the console, watching the operators trying to raise Lily on communication.

"What do you think?" He asks his Senior Operator.

"The most likely scenario is that the network probing has somehow gone up to Lily. She's trying to prevent the probe reaching us?"

"Can it come this far?"

"Better be safe than sorry, sir." But Chrono can tell the Operator is not sure of it himself.

"Alright. Tell me when she's back online."

.

Inside the freezing cold trans-dimensional path, two masked mages fly at an impossible speed. Normally it would take them days to reach their destinations, but they are being pushed by strange magic pumped into the path by the hooded woman. The mages reach a junction where the path separates into two. One heads to Lily, the other one to the world designated as Sector 12.

.

Lily's Bridge is in full swing.

"Anomaly in the Engine Room, captain! Mana surges! The path has widened! Something is heading this way, Captain! There's one more going down to the site!" The ensign shouts.

"OUR Engine room?!"

"Captain, I can ping this!" The petty officer reports excitedly.

"Do it." Lucino instructs her crew, then calls the lieutenant down at the anomaly gate. The platoon leader's face appears in front of her.

"Lieutenant, the path has branched out, and something is coming our way. And your way, too."

"Aye, Captain. Do you need us back?"

Before Lucino can answer, the petty officer butts in.

"We can't, Captain. The local dimension is already saturated with distortions as is. If we add our teleportation on top of that we risk the world collapsing."

"Well, shit. Lieutenant, I'd love to have you back, but you heard him. Stand by. Maintain comm."

The video face nods.

"Aye aye, Captain. Standing by."

.

Down at the anomaly site, the golden orbs start to slowly move towards the gate. The platoon leader notices this.

"Captain, the surveillance orbs seem to be returning."

"Obviously, their job here is done-" Lucino is interrupted by a sudden alarm going off in her ship.

.

The ensign is in a full panic mode.

"Mage approaching up the path! Estimated rank: A plus at least! He's fast! Another A plus to the site!"

"A plus?! We can't handle an A plus!" Lucino warns the soldiers on the ground.

"Lieutenant, a mage ranked A plus approaching your-" She is interrupted by her operator.

"Engine room reports an intruder, Capt...Hostile! Engine reports hostile…" The ensign seems to have lost communication with the engine room. She calls out again and again but the engine room remains silent.

"Battle stations!" Captain Lowran shouts her order. The alarm changes to the announcement of battle stations. Lucino gets on the ship's PA system.

"This is your Captain speaking. We have a hostile intruder on-board, last seen: engine-" The ship shakes with a sound of an explosion. The power whirls down significantly.

"Main power is gone, Captain." The petty officer states the obvious.

Lucio grits her teeth and continues with the announcement.

"One hostile intruder on-board. Estimated mage rank: A plus or up. Contain and eliminate with caution!"

.

At the anomaly site, the platoon leader backs away from the gate.

"Platoon, engage! Destroy this gate!"

As the medium caliber squad weapons start pouring down on the anomaly, small weapons shoot down the surveillance orbs, which when hit explode with a pop. Teana dashes out into the open.

"No!"

Ducking low in order not to get in the line of fire, Teana casts stasis magic, managing to capture the last remaining orb intact before it is destroyed, putting it in a frozen like state.

The dimensional gate can't sustain itself under fire. With a bang, it collapses, but not before a masked figure emerges from it, who is instantly met with the raining fires. To everyone's surprise, the masked mage's barrier absorbs the damage.

The masked mage turns around to discover the way back home gone, then turns back to face the men, who are alert but have stopped shooting, watching the mysterious person with caution.

The masked mage lunges towards the closest target, Teana, with a glowing yellow beam blade drawn out. Clutching the secured orb under one arm, Teana quickly draws one of her two pistols, that now has an orange blade extruding from the barrel. She parries the attack and dives backward, falling hard on her back, hitting a rock with her head.

The platoon fires upon the attacker. The masked mage shifts attention to the soldiers and makes a dash to the platoon leader's first squad. The men curse and scream in pain as they are cut down one by one. The mage zips around the field mowing down the soldiers.

Teana comes back to senses as the mysterious attacker is finishing off the sergeant's squad. She quickly gets on her knees and aims her both pistols, but the masked figure is already on her, swinging down the glowing blade. Teana blocks with one bladed pistol and shoots with the other. The shot lands on the target's stomach at point-blank range and shatters the barrier, sending the foe flying backward, crashing hard on the ground.

Teana stands up, both pistols aimed steadily at the deadly mage, who gets up; visibly shaken. The masked mage shakes off the pain, and makes another dash towards the dual pistol wielding Teana, but explodes into fine bloody mist when Teana's shots connect with the target.

As the adrenaline wears off and the post-fight horror settles in, Teana starts breathing heavily, trembling, she looks around in horror at the mangled corpses scattered around the field.

.

Another explosion shakes Lily.

"Captain, we've lost Teleportation! At this rate we are-"

"Ping complete, Captain! I have rough coordinate of the origin!" The petty officer interrupts the ensign operator.

Captain Lowran closes her eyes and thinks hard. She opens her eyes again with a firm determination.

"Change of priority. The coordinate intel outweighs everything else. Can we push it to the Mainland?"

The petty officer shakes his head.

"No, we lost too much power, Captain."

"Right. Make a hardcopy of the log and everything, failproof it."

The petty officer starts to extract the data from his console into a small mana prism. Lucio takes a deep breath and makes another announcement to the ship.

"This is Captain speaking. Bridge carries a valuable piece of intelligence that must survive at all cost. At all cost. You know what that means."

The crew, of course, knows what that means. Lily is an intelligence-gathering ship after all. The crew, each carrying a weapon, abandon their respective posts and set up defensively outside the Bridge. Some sweating, some shaking, some crying, but all have their weapons pointed down the hallway leading to the Bridge. They are determined to protect the Bridge. At all cost.

.

As the petty officer urges the mana prism to extract the data faster, to no avail, of course, there is a great cacophony of sounds; the sound of battle raging outside the Bridge's shutdoor; small scale explosion magics, gun-like rapid firing, flesh being cut open, sliced away, or torn. Lots of screams and profanity.

"80%, 82%...But Captain, how do we deliver this to the Mainland?" He asks the inevitable question.

"We will find a way."

Suddenly the outside battle comes to silence with one last agonizing scream and a thud. The ensign is panicking, sobbing endlessly with a standard issue Strike Rifle pointed at the shut door.

"Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit"

"88%! Come on! 90%! Come on!" The petty officer yells at his console, frustrated. With a loud bang, a large piece of metal that served as the Bridge's shut door flies across the room.

"Fire at will!" Lucino shouts her desperate order, taking the first shot herself. The petty officer is glued to his console and the mana prism, with his back turned to the battle happening on the Bridge. There are yelling and screaming and the clash of blades and deadly spells flying around behind his back.

"96%, Captain! Almost done! 98%...100! It's done, Captain!"

But his captain does not answer. Trembling, he realizes the Bridge is engulfed in complete silence except for his heavy breathing. He slowly turns around and gasps at the sight of the dead bodies and sliced off limbs of his colleagues.

A few steps away from him is a rather slender figure, face hidden by a gray-black mask painted with a big red X on it, in a rather tattered black overall. The intruder is held by Captain Lowran, half slumped, hugging and leaning against the intruder, blocking the attacker from advancing to the petty officer. A bright yellow beam blade has pierced the Captain's chest and is jutting out her blooded back.

Captain Lowran turns her head around to look at her junior officer, tries to say something, but dies, losing her grip on the intruder. As soon as Lucino's dead knees hit the floor, an automated announcement goes off, alerting a self-destruct sequence has been initiated.

The intruder pulls the beam blade out of the Captain and pushes the dead body aside. The petty officer looks around, hyperventilating in fear, clutching the mana prism. It has to survive somehow. Without hesitation, he shoots explosion magic at the nearest window pane. The explosion shatters the window. He dives out into space just in time to dodge the blade landing on his console.

In the freezing cold space, clutching tight the mana prism in his chest, the petty officer watches the intruder on the Bridge blown to pieces along with his ship Lily. With the last remaining strength, he turns around and shields the mana prism from the blast with his own body.


	2. 2: First Impressions

A service is underway in Midchilda's memorial ground, attended by men and women in armed forces uniforms. Chrono gives his speech in a solemn tone.

Chief Enforcer and her junior Teana are also there, standing far back next to a lady dressed in grey white Air Armament Service uniform with a distant expression. Next to the Air officer stands Hayate, with a solemn face, accompanied by two women, a little girl, a tall man, and two tiny floating fairies, all in Ground Armament Service uniforms.

Chrono finishes his speech. A Sail Force soldier plays the trumpet, and a firing squad shoots volleys as the attendees salute. The service ends, and people begin to disperse. Chrono makes a round, offering condolences to the families who lost their loved ones.

Two men approach Teana's group. One wearing Executive Office uniform, the other wearing Ground Armament Service uniform. The former salutes Chief Enforcer, while the latter salutes the lieutenant general. The two women nod to what the men are saying. Teana, her boss, and the young general bid farewell to the group, and head towards their respective chauffeur-driven limousines; Teana riding with her boss.

.

Uniformed men and women shuffle into the conference room located in Sail Force's Cranagan complex, greeting, nodding to each other, taking their seats at the conference table. Most of them have come straight from the memorial service, dressed for the occasion. When almost everyone is seated a Sail Force officer enters the room to announce the arrival of the Bureau Security Adviser. All rise as a middle-aged man wearing a dark suit enters the room. He walks to the vacant seat next to Lindy and gives a nod to the room before sitting himself. The men and women sit, too, and the meeting commences.

"First of all, let me start by saying that was an excellent memorial service befitting the honorable men and women of Naval Intelligence. I see most of you came here straight from the service so I'm sure you all agree." Starts the Bureau Security Adviser. Chrono thanks the man as many in the room agree with nods.

"Now, Deputy Director Harlaown, Managing Directors have been briefed on what happened. My job is to advise them where we go from here. Would you kindly help?"

"We have salvaged what we can, sir, and the results are not satisfactory, to say the least. All we know is the estimated location of the origin."

It was indeed not satisfactory at all. He continues.

"We can at least make some guesses. Look how fast and deadly they responded once they encountered our men. That's some quick judgment, and focused decision making, Sir."

"Professor, how do we interpret this?" The Security Adviser asks Naval Intelligence's analysis consultant. Yuuno clears his throat.

"That leads to two possible interpretations: Quick and decisive decision making because they are a small group of like-minded people with clear predefined goals. Or... a large group under a firm and strong leadership that is borderline absolute."

"...I am told you were initially of the opinion it was a peace envoy?"

"I am proven wrong, sir." Yuuno accepts humbly.

"In fairness, sir, Lily was out there on my orders." Says Chrono in defense of his friend of a long time.

"Hey, I'm not pointing fingers here."

"But you are." Chief Enforcer hears Teana muttering under her breath. She elbows the junior officer.

Chrono brings up the recorded footage salvaged from the mana prism. It shows the crew desperately trying to hold off the intruder from entering the Bridge to no avail.

"Why was the self-destruct sequence activated?" The Security adviser asks. Chrono answers with a solemn face.

"Sir, Lily is an intelligence ship. Once the crew number reaches below a threshold and the ship is deemed not fit for sail, the sequence activates automatically."

The Security Adviser ponders this for a moment.

"Do we know who they are?" he asks. Chrono shakes his head. Lily's salvaged log only has a line or two about one hostile intruder ranked possibly A plus or up.

"Unfortunately there isn't much left of the attacker on the site either, but Enforcer Lanster was able to put one of the surveillance orbs in stasis. Our lab extracted the mana signature, sir, and is crosschecking against the registered mages database." Chief Enforcer reports.

"Anything turned up?" Bureau Security Adviser asks hopefully but gets a no as a reply.

"So we really don't know anything except...somebody doesn't like us very much. But we know where they are." He summarizes looking around the room.

Chrono leans onto the table slightly.

"Rough estimation of their whereabouts, sir. In that regard, I am preparing a deep recon mission."

Lindy sits up straight, concerned.

"Hold on a sec...off the record for a moment, please. Don't tell me you are going there yourself."

"Mom…please…" Teana hears Chief Enforcer muttering under her breath, sighing visibly and audibly from embarrassment. She elbows her senior officer.

"Well, yes, I am going. If something goes wrong it's up against mages A plus minimum. I can't send my men alone into that." Chrono insists. The Bureau Security Adviser stops Lindy before she protests.

"Now now, please. Setting the motherly..." he glances at Chief Enforcer. "and sisterly concerns aside, Deputy Director has a good point. Can we get back on record?"

Lindy throws hands in defeat and pouts.

"Thank you. So...what would be the objective of this recon mission?" The Security Adviser asks.

"Covert intel gathering, sir. We go in as quietly as possible. Look around, and get out. As is now, we just do not have enough materials to make a viable threat assessment. I hope to gather those bits and pieces." Chrono answers confidently. The room murmurs agreement. The Bureau Security Adviser turns to Lindy.

"Let's say we find an army ready to invade us. How do we handle it?"

The Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff shakes her head.

"It's too early to say without a proper threat assessment..."

"That's exactly why we need that recon mission." The Security Adviser points out. Lindy has no choice but to accept the fact.

"Yes, sir...Anyway, full mobilization across the entire administrated territory would take about 3 months. Mind you though, maintaining the full mobilization state indefinitely will have negative political implications." She does not need to mention the cost associated with such.

The Security Adviser considers this for a moment, drumming fingers on the table.

"Sir, I will have my Enforcers on alert while threat assessment is in progress. I think that would be more economical." Chief Enforcer offers.

"Yes, please do that, Chief Enforcer. JSC has also made a good point, but I want at least the Capital to be secure. Commander Yagami? How's it with Capital Defense?"

Lieutenant general Hayate Yagami speaks up.

"Sir, Capital Defense would take at least a week to complete its full mobilization, but Signum's Rapid Response Division can fully deploy anywhere within two worlds distance from the Capital in 72 hours. Of her two first response battalions, one can be up and ready within 24 hours."

The two first response battalions are widely considered as Rapid Response Division Commander Signum's personal shotgun, packing enough punch and flexibility to go with their reputation. The Security Adviser searches through his memory for the names of the officers.

"If I remember correctly, that'd be Vita and Nakajima?"

"Yes, sir. Anvil and Punchkid. They alternate on standby duty."

The Security Adviser digests this for a moment. The Capital is in good hands. He looks around the conference room.

"OK. Strategic Arms? Is Strategic Arms here?"

"Here, sir." A thin man in Air Armament uniform, a liaison officer, stands up from the back of the room.

"Despite the ad-hoc nature of Strategic Arms, we are fortunate both Lightning and Bookworm are here with us as you can see..." He nods to Hayate and Chief Enforcer.

"I tell you, I hate that code name." Hayate can be heard. Ignoring her complaint, the Strategic Arms officer continues.

"They are, obviously, informed up to date with the situation so there won't be any issues in terms of readiness...Doomsday, on the other hand...she is pretty much kept in the dark, I presume?" He throws an inquisitive look at Chief Enforcer.

"Yes, correct."

The Security Adviser waves it off.

"Doomsday is a retaliatory measure. I don't think we are at the desperate stage where we discuss a guaranteed retaliation, are we?" He looks around the room, seeking agreement.

"Threat assessment should come first, sir." Chrono points out.

"Right then. Nevertheless, we will double security detail on Doomsday and Lightning anyway...just in case." Says the Strategic Arms officer.

Chief Enforcer leans to Teana and whispers, grimacing.

"Oh god, more men hanging around our house."

.

The meeting has ended and people are shuffling out. Professor Scrya catches up with Deputy Director Harlaown.

"Hey, got a minute?"

Chrono doesn't need to hear what Yuuno wants.

"Sure. You want in?"

"Yeah." The ever-curious Professor pleads. Chrono has to warn him.

"This won't be a picnic like the last time, you know that." He looks at Yuuno's face and gives in.

"Alright...as always, I would need you to sign a waver...you know the protocol."

At this moment, Lindy walks out of the conference room with Chief Enforcer tagging behind.

"Son, we need to talk."

Chrono gives Professor the 'Uh oh' face, and reluctantly joins his mother and sister. Yuuno watches the three Harlaowns walk down the corridor, arguing.

**#**

.

Vaizen is the heart of the technological development among the worlds in the Bureau's territory, the home of Caledfwlch Techniques company and alike. So it's not surprising to find Naval Intelligence has a Staging Dock on the eastern coast slightly north of the industrial sector. The Staging Dock serves, as its name implies, as a dock to stage Naval Intelligence ships trans-dimensional journeys. The Dock's technology not only serves its owner's purpose but also contributes to the regional dimensional travel network; acting as a major control node for the civilian teleportation network in the seaside area.

It's a sunny and clear morning, and now there sits a frigate sized ship, a covert operations ship named Helios, getting ready to sail. Professor Scrya has to clear multiple security checkpoints before finally boarding the ship. An officer greets Yuuno and leads him to the Bridge, where Chrono is conversing with the ship's Captain.

"Speaking of the devil. There he is." Chrono greets Yuuno. The Captain extends his hand for a manly handshake.

"Welcome on-board Helios, Professor. Captain Griffith Lowran."

"Yuuno Scrya, Infinity Library. Thanks for having me on board; I will be in your care..." Yuuno hesitates. "Erm...are you related to-"

"Yes, Yuuno. They are married." Chrono answers instead.

"Oh...I'm sorry about your wife, Captain." Yuuno honestly means it. After all, he was the one suggested the plan that got Lily blown up. But the Captain is not going to have any of it.

"Not your fault, Professor, please don't blame yourself." He turns to Deputy Director.

"Sir, I'm actually very grateful that you picked Helios for the mission. It's kinda personal for me now."

"Good, but remember; no guns blazing."

**#**

.

Same morning but back in a well-off residential area of Midchilda, a woman, mid to late 30s, wearing Air Armament Service uniform and spotting a lieutenant colonel rank, exits the front door of a large double story house. Spotting down the driveway a limousine parked on the road, she pokes her head inside her home to shout.

"Fate-chan, your ride is here."

As she approaches her car parked in the driveway, a black sedan comes to halt in front of the house, next to the parked limousine. Four suited men emerge from the car and approach the house.

As the lieutenant colonel stops and looks at the men with a puzzled expression, an armed group of Air Armament Service uniformed men appears out of nowhere, blocking the four men. The group's leader salutes the mysterious men.

"Excuse us, gentlemen. Security Force, Strategic Arms Command. May I see your identifications, please?"

The four men hands over their IDs and one of the security force scans them with his device. The lieutenant colonel approaches, curious.

"Good morning, Captain. What is this about?" The leader of the security team assigned to Doomsday and Lightning household salutes her.

"Good morning, madam. These gentlemen are from the Inspection Department. IDs check out."

One of the gentlemen from the Inspection Department smiles apologetically.

"Good morning, lieutenant colonel. We are here for Chief Enforcer Harlaown."

As if on cue, Chief Enforcer Fate Harlaown emerges from the house. Another group of security force appears out of nowhere getting in the way.

"Hey, you can't just take her away like that." One of them protests.

"Actually they can. Stand down, lieutenant." The Captain tells his man off.

Fate is visibly puzzled.

"Morning, Captain. Morning lieutenant…Nanoha, what's going on?" She asks her partner. The lieutenant colonel, Nanoha Takamachi, shrugs.

From the parked limousine Fate's driver emerges and walks up the driveway.

"Hey, what's going on? She's gonna be late."

.

Teana is on the road, riding her bike to work when a call comes in.

"Good morning, Nanoha...They who?... Inspection Department? Why?... Right, I'll check from my side"

.

Teana barges into the Investigation Laboratory located deep in the Executive Office HQ building. She is seriously pissed. She finds the person she came for; the Senior Lab Operator, a bespectacled lady in a white lab coat, sipping coffee at her console.

"What the hell do you mean you sent the result to the Inspection!"

The Senior Lab Operator sighs.

"Teana, like I said on the phone; I had no choice."

"But why? How could you do this? She signs your wage bill!"

"That's exactly why I can't have the report go to her. Nor you."

Frustrated, Teana storms out of the lab. She calls somebody.

**#**

.

On the Bridge of Helios, Yuuno watches the sailors getting ready to depart. He is fascinated. The Captain notices this and kindly explains what his men are doing and why. Chrono joins in, and the conversation naturally drifts to the mission.

"Wouldn't they know we are coming?" asks Yuuno. It is a legitimate question with a perfect answer.

"We will be traveling through a path so narrow they won't even notice." Answers the Captain.

"In that case, isn't this ship too large? How exactly do we travel such a narrow path?"

The two Naval Intelligence gentlemen smile. Helios is equipped with a portable dimensional interference system. As she travels the system temporarily widens the local section of the pathway just enough for Helios to get through.

"Imagine a fat mouse running through a narrow rubber hose." Explains Griffith vividly.

"That's amazing." Yuuno is honestly impressed.

"Downside is we will be traveling slow. We estimate four days sailing like that."

One of the Bridge crew announces Helios is ready to launch. Griffith motions for Yuuno and Chrono to take seats.

"Right. Bring her up."

From the open communication, the voice of Naval Intelligence Mission Control's Senior Operator fills the Bridge.

"Helios, all clear from our side."

"Mission Control, Helios launching. We keep in touch." A Bridge operator replies.

"Helios, may the wind blow in your favor."

.

Helios rises. A dimensional anomaly appears in front of the ship. With a whoosh, Helios disappears, and the anomaly shrinks to football size.

**#**

.

Fate is sitting alone at a small table in the interrogation room. She hears a loud heated discussion going on outside the closed door. Apparently, not everyone in the Inspection Department is happy bringing THE Chief Enforcer of Executive Office in for an interrogation. The noise ends abruptly and an inspector, Verossa Acous, an acquaintance of a long time, enters the room.

"Fate, sorry for the wait." He apologizes.

"Hey, Verossa. What's this about?"

"Let's get to the business. Where were you when Lily was attacked?" This catches Fate completely off-guard

"Wait, what?" Verossa just observes her, studying her reaction.

"I was in my office. Ask my secretary."

"We will." A holo-image appears on the table. "Do you recognize this?"

"Yes. It's a wide area surveillance orb."

"And?"

"Yes, of course. It's the one Teana brought in. What's going on?"

Verossa lets out a sigh, disappointed.

"So...you don't have anything else you want to tell me about?"

By now Fate is utterly confused.

"I don't understand your question, Verossa." She pleads.

Verossa sighs again and starts pulling out several holo-documents and charts.

"You see...when your lab digs something, they dig deep." He browses through the reports he pulled out. "So when they couldn't match the mana signature to anyone in the registered mages database, they dug deeper...For someone gone missing. Or someone presumed dead. They went through the past database snapshots. Just to be sure."

He finds the report he was looking for.

"Out of all the mages who ever lived and registered with the Bureau, there is only one matching the mana signature."

A chart and a text display appear on the table. It reads: "98.76% match: Fate Testarossa Harlaown"

"It's yours."

Fate blinks a couple of times, lost. She shakes her head in disbelief.

"Nope. Impossible. Not mine."

"It definitely is yours, Fate. What's puzzling us, though, is..." Inspector Acous points at the referred database snapshot date. He even enlarges the display so Fate can see it better. Fate, again, has to blink couple more times in disbelief.

"No way. That's more than twenty years ago!"

Apparently, as one ages, the mana signature changes, too. According to Verossa that is the reason why the Investigation Lab couldn't find a match from the live database.

"It doesn't make sense!" Fate is, obviously, frustrated.

"Yet this orb is yours."

Fate is the Bureau's head of law enforcement. Over her long carrier in the Office, she has interrogated thousands of suspects herself, and she knows where this is going.

"Are you accusing me of attacking Lily? You do know Lucino and I've been friends since the Riot Force 6 days, right?"

"It's a hypothesis logically based on the fact that the orb is yours. The question is how and why." Verossa slows down a bit. "Look, I'm sure this is all just some misunderstanding, and I want to help. But we need to clear the question marks first."

Fate is having none of it.

"Look, let me ask some questions myself then. First, you know surveillance orbs can't survive this long. How did it last this long? Second, if I were part of the attack, why didn't I stop my lab from extracting the mana signature? See? It's not mine. I didn't attack Lily, nor the Naval Intelligence soldiers."

"No matter what we say, these orbs have survived ever since they were made when you were... fifteen? sixteen?. Maybe you forgot about the orbs during the years?...and that's why you didn't stop your lab from analyzing?"

"Oh god, I can't believe this." Fate shakes head in frustration.

Verossa, seeing this is going nowhere, changes his tactic to a cautious approach.

"Fate...you know around that time Nanoha was badly injured. Almost died, even. Do you remember that?" He gets no answer. "Maybe...in your sensitive teenage years...seeing your close friend in intensive care like that...you thought it was all Bureau's fault that Nanoha almost died?"

Fate lets out a sigh.

"Briefly...yes...for a very short moment." She flares up again. "But please! The orb's not mine! and I have no part in the attack!"

Suddenly there's a commotion outside. People are shouting at somebody to stop. Then comes a loud bang of someone trying to kick the door open but failing.

"Pull." Verossa tells the person behind the door.

After a brief silence, the door opens gently and Hayate walks into the interrogation room, face red.

.

Hayate is giving Fate a ride to the Office in her limousine. She has flexed the power of the three stars on her shoulder to make Verossa let Fate go. In the process, she had to vouch for her friend in writing, though.

Fate is clearly in distress, mumbling to herself; "what have I done? Did I really?"

"Well…did you?" asks Hayate cautiously.

"16 years old me? No, Hayate-chan, no…or maybe I did? I don't remember." Fate bangs her head sideways to the window. Hayate tries to reason.

"Those might be yours, but that still doesn't mean you were a part of the attack. I mean how could 16 years old you help an attack on a Bureau's ship twenty-some years later?"

"We are talking about the orbs traveling through a space-time dimensional path...Who knows? Maybe my younger-self really is playing a part in this." But if she really did she would surely remember. The two ladies are confused and they shut up.

.

When Fate returns to her office Teana barges in, demanding to know what happened. The Senior Lab Operator tags along with an apologetic expression. Fate explains what happened at the Inspection.

"Sorry about that, boss."

"Don't say that. You did the right thing, though Teana here is seriously… pissed?"

"More than pissed." Snaps Teana.

"Is there any possibility the result is wrong?" Fate asks hopefully.

"No, boss." The laboratory had several 90 plus percent matches across several consecutive years worth of snapshots. She just sent in the peak match value one to the Inspection.

"Ok, then, you are the expert here, so let me ask this. How does a surveillance orb survive for twenty-something years?" Teana asks.

"It can't."

"What the bloody fu-"

"It doesn't make any sense at all." Fate interrupts before Teana utters the f-word. The Senior Lab Operator thinks for a bit.

"There is...one. Maybe your younger self is sending the orbs through the time?"

"Is that really possible?" asks Fate though she really doesn't want to think about the possibility.

"Well...no."

"What the bloody fu-"

The Senior Lab Operator quickly continues before Teana can finish the f-word.

"You'd need a virtually unlimited mana pool, which you don't have. I mean, you are an extremely powerful mage, boss, but you are not a god."

'Big mana pool? Hmm' thinks Fate, rubbing her chin.

"Let's say...Takamachi and Yagami helped me. Would that work?"

The Lab Operator shakes her head.

"No. The power requirement I'm talking about is way beyond that."

"So...if 16 years old me has access to a power that is way beyond myself, Takamachi, and Yagami combined..." Fate trails off. The Lab Operator nods.

"And blows up a Bureau ship?...then yes, boss, I'd consider you an existential threat to the Bureau-"

"And report to the Inspection!" snaps Teana angrily. Her colleague in charge of the lab shrugs.

"...but as I said it's impossible you are attacking the Bureau through the time. There simply is no such power."

"But then we are back to square one." Fate buries the head in her hands.

**#**

.

A group of masked people emerges from a dormitory onto the barren land. Walking among them is the person with a visible crack on the mask. The group walks up a rocky hill where another trans-dimensional anomaly magic is being cast by a dozen masked mages.

A small masked figure walks next to the person, a child aged 10, 11 judging by the height. The little one struggles as the group walks up the hill, lagging behind. The person waits for the little one to catch up.

The group has joined about a hundred or so mages standing in front of the recently formed anomaly gate. The person and the little one finds their group and join the others. A tall masked mage summons a dozen golden surveillance orbs and sends them through the dimensional travel path. The rest of the mages waits.

After a while, the orbs return, and the tall mage dissolves the orbs, shaking head.

"Did we find Midchilda?" the little one asks.

"No. Not today. Maybe next time." The person answers in a kind tone.

**#**

.

From her throne located in the top chamber of the large pyramid-like structure, the hooded woman watches her masked mages bruteforce the multiverse. She is upset; regretting.

'I should have taken the ship!'

Had she done that, she would be in Midchilda by now.

But what happened is what happened. She leans back. At least the Bureau now knows what she is up to. That means somewhere not too close but not too far a ship will be monitoring her gate. That would be grand, she thinks to herself. But they would try to attack and force the gate to collapse at the first sign of trouble like the last time. The hooded woman shuts her eyes, considering many possibilities.

She has come to this desolate world with nothing but hope, and she did gain what she came for; an immense magical power beyond recognition. So when she finally realized that it still amounted to nothing, she was stunned, to say the least. For more than half her life she has had only one goal, and just when she thought she had it, it went farther away out of her reach.

Her very first attempt upon arrival had failed miserably; resulting in an abomination that died and disintegrated within seconds. Then came a storm, which she miraculously survived. She wasn't so blinded with her goal as to not see the risk this harsh environment imposed on her precious jewel. Something had to be done. Unfortunately, the magical minions she summoned could not withstand the toxic ambient magic. Desperate and reluctant, she had no choice but to fall back on the technique that she had shunned and regretted. Hence came the masked mages. Strong. Loyal. And loathed by their creator.

Once the mages built her shelter, the hooded woman started experimenting again. Utilizing all her knowledge and experience and every single milligram of her genius, trying to crack the ultimate secret of all. She threw everything she had, everything she knew, but it was not enough. Countless revisions and rewrites and retries pointed to one single conclusion: the knowledge is beyond the realm of the mortals.

By coming to this world she had attained the magical power comparable to a god. She simply has to become all-seeing and, more importantly, all-knowing. And then, finally, she will reach her goal. That day will come. Hence, no matter how or at what costs, she absolutely has to reach Midchilda.

**#**

.

Helios has detected the trans-dimensional path from afar.

"Any idea where it was connecting to?" asks Captain Griffith Lowran. His Senior Bridge Operator looks up from his console.

"No, Captain. But definitely not Vaizen."

"How come?" Yuuno inquires, curious. The Captain turns to him to answer.

"If that was a path to Vaizen, it would have overlapped with ours at some point."

"Right...What do you think, Yuuno?" asks Chrono.

"This is interesting. They are sending the orbs again even after the last incident." If they are looking for a fight, there is not a reason for them to look for a new place. It did not make sense.

Chrono agrees.

"That's been puzzling me, too. Why didn't they establish a beachhead last time? If they are planning an invasion, it doesn't make sense to rile us up like that. That makes it harder for an attack."

"Maybe they want a juicier target?" Griffith suggests. Professor Scrya muses an alternative.

"Or maybe they are looking for a specific place?"

.

The very next day Teana storms into Fate's spacious office.

"Hah! I got the proof you are not involved."

Fate looks up from the report she was reading.

"Calm down, Teana. What are you talking about?"

"There was another dimensional anomaly appearance, and surveillance orbs, too." Teana excitedly pulls out reports from a monitoring agent located in the middle of nowhere

"And how does that prove my innocence?"

"You were having lunch with Saint Church's Carim Gracia at that exact time! Under my surveillance!" says Teana triumphantly. Her boss sighs and leans back on the chair.

"Is that why there were people secretly trailing me these days? Who are they anyway? I don't recognize any of them."

"Outside contractors. Because...you'd have recognized people from the Office?" Teana starts to think maybe it was not a good idea to tell her boss about it.

"Well, compared to our colleagues in the Inspection, who by the way are also on my tail, they aren't doing a very good job, are they?" Fate is in fact not very happy with an army of people following her around watching everything she does. Recently the Inspection Department has also assigned a team to follow her 'in secret'. She is used to the security detail from the Strategic Arms, but having two more groups is too much. Teana's 'contractors' were not only bad but so suspicious she had to stop the Strategic Arms security team from taking them out.

"By the way, I don't recall approving a budget for those contractors?"

Teana starts to back out of the office.

"...er...sorry, boss, I gotta go. I need to take care of something." She quickly leaves the office.

"Teana, get back here!"

"Sorry, boss! I really gotta go!" shouts Teana from the hallway, running. Fate leans forward on her desk shaking her head, but she is not mad.

**#**

.

A Bridge crew starts the countdown.

"Exiting the gate in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Captain, we've arrived."

.

High up in the sky middle of nowhere far from the dormitories, a little blip of the trans-dimensional gate quickly appears and disappears. Helios is is in stealth mode and is invisible.

.

A loud alarm beeping from a console fills the bridge.

"Mana sensor is overloading! She's gonna blow, Captain!"

"Turn it off!" shouts Griffith over the noise. The beeping stops as the sensor operator turns off his sensors. The Captain throws an inquisitive look at his senior operator.

"All systems are green, Captain, except the mana sensor."

"What just happened?" Yuuno asks innocently.

The operator manning the sensors explains.

"The ambient magic was overloading our sensor, Professor."

"What does that mean?"

Griffith answers grumpily.

"Well, Professor, let me tell you something. Our passive mana sensor can measure and survive an Arc en Ciel. And this world's ambient magic almost fried that sensor just now."

It takes a few seconds for Yuuno to digest that piece of information. He lets out a whistle.

"Let's go optical." Griffith tells his crew.

"Aye aye, Captain. Optical on the main display." The sensor operator brings up a huge holo-display in front of the Captain. It shows the barren desolate land under the twirling violet sky.

"Hang on, Captain, there's something in the distance. I'm zooming in."

The display zooms in and shows a series of dormitories surrounding a huge building in the center. Countless ants sized people are moving about in the field.

"Those are definitely man-made structures." The Captain comments. "Can we zoom in further?"

The display zooms in further.

"Can they see us?" Professor asks, slightly concerned.

"Nah. Helios cloak is way stronger than that of an individual monitoring agent. We are pretty safe." Chrono answers in a relaxed tone.

The Captain gestures to his two guests.

"Deputy Director. Professor. Your show now."

**#**

.

It has been some days since Helios arrived, watching silently. Observing everything.

Not knowing of this, the cracked mask person surveys a ruin site with several other mages. Judging by the arrangement of the rubbles it looks like there stood a walled house on this ground a long time ago. A very very long time ago.

The person goes through a pile of rocks, or ancient bricks depending on how one looks at them. The person digs dirt occasionally, trying to see if there is anything interesting. The little mage is doing the same not far from the person; visibly displaying the signs of boredom and irritation. The little one has had it enough and stands up with a sigh.

"Sister, I'll try to shock the area."

The person considers it for a moment. Subjecting the survey area under a light magical shock would induce whatever magical item hidden to react. It is arguably the fastest method to look for a magical item. The problem is one never knows what or how something would react. The person surveys the area. This is a dead-end. Heck, why not?

"Right. Everyone, off the ground!"

The mages in the area lift up into the air. The little one smothers the ruin site with a weak magic discharge, and immediately a pillar of twisting violet light juts out from a pile of rocks.

"Whoa! You found something!" The person shouts in excitement. The mages hurry down onto the pile and remove the rocks. The little one picks up something small, examines it, and shakes head.

"It's just some useless junk." The little one is clearly disappointed.

"We don't know that. Keep it and show it to mother later. She will know what it is." The cracked mask person tries to lift up the mood.

**#**

.

From the far distance, Professor Scrya watches in horror.

"For god's sake, they are trampling all over the place!" He winces as another magical discharge smothers another site.

"Please! Somebody stop them!"

.

And so for the next seven days, Yuuno watches in agony the atrocities done to what he describes as precious remains of an ancient civilization. So ancient he can't even recognize anything; an archaeological discovery.

"They don't know what they are doing!" He has complained over and over much to everyone's annoyance. Nevertheless, he has still found the time to do the math and discover the fact that more people are coming out of the huge pyramid-like building, which he has dubbed the Ziggurat, than those go in.

"What does that mean?" Lindy asks over the video conference with Lily. The Bridge crew are addressing the faces of Chairwoman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff and the Bureau Security Advisor. Professor highlights the Ziggurat.

"Around this building, some kind of a massive magic discharge is happening regularly. Although we can't measure the output quantitatively, the visual signs indicate something tremendous. Couple hours after such discharge, a large group of these workers come out and head to the smaller buildings."

"I still don't get it." The Security Advisor admits. Chrono gives a simpler answer.

"Sir, Professor and I have concluded that they are printing out the workers."

"Is that even possible?" Lindy asks, visibly shocked.

"Madam, anything is possible in this magic rich environment." Answers Yuuno. The ambient magic is so rich to the extent it's almost toxic, some of the lesser ranked crew have complained about nausea and vomiting.

"How many of these workers are we talking about?" asks Lindy. Chrono takes a deep breath before he answers. He knows his mom is not going to like what she hears.

"We see about a dozen thousand moving about at any given time. Overall, Helios AI estimates roughly one to two hundred thousand total." He can see the Bureau Security Advisor's jaw dropping.

"Oh my god…Any possibilities they are pumping out soldiers, too?" The Adviser asks.

"We have to assume so, sir." Chrono answers. "Everyone is wearing the same attire as the intruder on Lily. They also match what Enforcer Lanster has described."

"We've also seen them…" Yuuno adds. "We've seen them assembling around the gate whenever they do send out the surveillance orbs."

Lindy doesn't have to wonder what that means.

"Response force...in case they stumble upon whatever they are looking for?"

"Exactly, madam."

.

The Bureau Security Adviser asks if Helios has seen some kind of a leader among the inhabitants. Chrono knows where this is going. If there is a leadership that can be reasoned with… 'Ha! Only if!' he thinks to himself. He sees Yuuno also shaking the head, thinking the same. Over the past week and some days, they have not seen any sign of leadership.

"We've seen some rudimentary organizational structure, sir. The taller ones seem to usher around a bunch of smaller ones, but that's about it." Yuuno answers. He has been wondering. These structures are serving obvious purposes, clearly built by the inhabitants. Such requires organization, planning, and management. Whoever did all that is now nowhere to be seen. Professor continues.

"And they gather bush roots, but there is no sign of any cultivation nor irrigation. Nor roads. I'm pretty sure the Ziggurat houses the top boss, but all those basic things are lacking."

"It's like a big family, big brothers and sisters taking care of the little ones. Except there is no mama and papa." Chrono summarizes.

"What about their magic capabilities?" Asks Lindy, reminding everyone the mission is about threat assessment. Helios has seen some flying and rock blasting, but with the sensor overloaded nothing definitive could be determined.

"Alright…Professor, - idea - place is?" The Security Adviser asks, but the communication quality is deteriorating.

"No, sir, but I have a vague-" Professor tries to answer when the communication goes offline.

"What's going on?" Captain Lowran demands. One of the Bridge operators points out the large window.

**#**

.

"How bad is it?" The Captain asks. His Senior Operator brings up a zoomed image onto the main display.

"Doesn't look good, Captain. Never seen a storm forming up this quick, this strong."

Yuuno points to the display.

"Locals are packing up, too."

On the main display, the zoomed image shows the local workers hurrying off the field, rushing to their dormitories. A thunder-like mana discharge strikes one of the masked workers, who falls to the singed ground, dead.

"Shit…"

More and more of such mana discharges appear on the horizon, eventually filling the air like bright fireworks with their flashes, rumbling over the rocky ground, getting closer and closer to Helios. Chrono taps on the Captain's shoulder.

"Captain, can Helios tank this?"

"Hell, no." The Captain shakes his head. "Let's get out of this shitstorm."

.

A trans-dimensional gate appears in front of Helios, only to collapse immediately.

.

"What the fuck?" The Senior Operator is baffled.

"Looks like the mana storm has excited the ambient magic." His colleague suggests an explanation. "Dimensional tear can't sustain its hole."

"Alright." the Captain makes his decision. "So we can't get out. Anchor her down. At least let's not get blown away."

.

Harpoon-like anchors are shot out of the invisibly cloaked Helios, digging into the ground far below, tethering the ship in the air.

.

"Pressure front hitting us in 20, 19, 18…" The Senior Operator starts the countdown, reading off from his console.

"All crew, brace for impact." Griffith speaks to the PA system, maintaining a calm voice. Checking first everyone on the Bridge is seated and buckled up, he takes his seat and gets ready for a rough ride. As the pressure front sweeps past Helios the ship starts to shake violently.

.

The storm's massive force is trying to blow Helios away, but the ship is holding its position up in the turbulent air thanks to the anchors. And then a thunder-like mana discharge hits Helios with a bright flash accompanied by a deafening noise.

The invisibility cloak is gone.

Another one hits Helios immediately after. The air erupts in white flashes as the ship is hit by thunderous mana discharges again and again.

With a whirling down sound, the main propulsion dies out. Helios begins to fall. Its falling speed is somewhat reduced thanks to smaller vertical thruster jets which sprung into action as soon as the main propulsion died. Nevertheless, Helios crashes down hard, letting out metallic groaning and creaking sound.


	3. 3: Mobilize!

Deputy Director Chrono Harlaown wakes up in Helios' infirmary with a splitting headache. He feels where it hurts; there is a large lump on the back of his head. Trying to focus, he looks around the infirmary. There are a couple of sailors with bandages and plasters, sleeping. He gets out of the bed and heads to the Bridge. The crew is running in the hallway, busy. Helios is buzzing with activities.

"Hello, sir." The Captain greets as Chrono enters the Bridge. "How are you feeling?" he asks.

"Just some headache. What happened?"

"Sorry, Deputy Director. My tumbler hit you on the head when we crashed. I'm sorry. I should have stowed it away." Griffith apologizes.

Chrono discovers Yuuno has been treated with an arm sling.

"What happened to you?"

"I was gripping on the armrest too hard and dislocated my shoulder when Helios hit the ground." Answers Professor Scrya blushing a bit. 'How's that even possible?' Chrono thinks to himself but doesn't say it aloud.

The Captain fills him with the current status. Fortunately, there have been no serious injuries among the crew; mostly some bumps and scratches, with a few cases with fractured bones. Chrono suffered a concussion and was out for some eight hours while the crew has been busy trying to fix the ship.

"Most of our circuitry is fried. Replacement progress is at 40%. My guys tell me the engines will be back online in twelve hours." So far so good. "But our biggest concern for the moment is that we've lost our cloak." Captain Lowran reports.

"Oh, shit…"

"Exactly, sir."

"Comm is back online, Captain." A Bridge staff reports.

.

In the Naval Intelligence's Mission Control, the Senior Mission Operator stands uncomfortably next to seated Lindy, who is not only Chairwoman of the JCS but also the mother of his boss. 'Really, why does she have to here?' he thinks to himself.

"-so we have few basic functions back up online, but we've lost the propulsion. Power output is at the minimum and the cloak is still out, too." Chrono reports over the voice-only communication. Helios still has a lot to be fixed.

"Prioritize the propulsion. You don't want to be caught with both the propulsion and the cloak down. You want to be able to get out at least." Suggests Lindy. Captain Lowran can be heard agreeing on the other side of the comm.

"But, really, that mana storm...I've never seen anything like that. How do these people even live here?" Chrono muses millions of kilometers away.

"Who are they anyway?" his mother asks. According to Professor Scrya, the inhabitants definitely are not native to the place. Their structures are too new compared to the ancient city ruin they are built on top of, with no signs of continuity between the two distant eras.

"Nomads, perhaps?" Lindy suggests.

"More like scavengers, as we see it, but a society, of some hundred thousand people, that does not display any sign of governance...that doesn't make any sense."

Lindy thinks for a while.

"Hmm...what if there was no central leadership? What if that Ziggurat doesn't house a leader, but is some kind of a place of worship?"

She can hear the distant sound of her son discussing with Yuuno.

"Well, then whatever the god they worship clearly doesn't care how these people live. But mind you, though, whoever runs a place of worship generally also acts as a community leader. It doesn't look like that way at all."

Lindy gives up. This is obviously out of her field of expertise.

"Right. You have the expert there with you, so you talk to Yuuno."

She senses Chrono hesitating before he finally asks.

"Erm...shouldn't you be at the JCS?"

Lindy has to make sure everyone understands.

"I'm staying here until you come back." She ignores the whispered sniggers in the room. Her son, on the other side of the multiverse, is embarrassed.

"Aw...come on, mom!"

**#**

.

Hours have passed and the person, together with the little one, is clearing rocks and pebbles on the doorway to their dormitory. Others are fixing windows, broken frames, etc; all very busy trying to make their lives in this hostile world work somehow.

Suddenly there is a commotion on the rooftop. The person looks up. The people on the rooftop are shouting, pointing at the rocky horizon.

"I can't see anything." The little one complains. The person straightens up, letting out a long sigh after hours of labor. The breeze feels good.

"Shall we try from up there?" The cracked mask person points to the roof.

They fly up onto the roof and join the others gathered there. They squint their eyes and examine the direction others are pointing at. There is something on the distant horizon. A tiny spec of foreignness, something they have never seen before.

A mage next to the little one casts communication magic. A set of magical ears appears hovering above the ground at the convenient mouth level height.

.

"Uh oh. Captain, optics show we have locals flying this way. ETA 20 minutes." The sensor operator reports. The entire Bridge personnel stop what they are doing and turn their heads to the big main display. A tiny cloud of blackness is approaching from very very far.

"Fuck." Griffith cusses his luck. He immediately calls the engines room. "When's my propulsion up?"

"We will be up in about 20 minutes, Captain." The engines operator reports over the internal communication. Captain Lowran isn't happy at all with this answer.

"We have locals inbound; ETA 20 minutes. Hurry up." He ends the call and turns to his operators.

"How many?"

"Based on optical, a hundred or so, Captain." The sensor operator answers. Griffith feels a tap on his shoulder. He turns to see Chrono with a worried face.

"Remember, Captain; the intruder on Lily was an A plus at least."

"Fuck." Griffith cusses again. "Helios can't handle one hundred A plus hostiles. Sorry Deputy Director, but as the Captain of the ship I'm calling the mission off. We are getting the hell out of here as soon as the propulsion is up and ready."

"Your ship, your call, Captain."

.

A swarm of masked mages rises from the Ziggurat area. Once airborne, the swarm flies towards a distant horizon, to Helios.

.

"Uh oh...Another group coming this way from the Ziggurat. Shit, sir, this one numbers in thousands!" the senior operator reports, panicking. Captain Lowran has also spotted the swarm on the optical display. He calls the engines room once again.

"Engines, this is Captain. Sail, and Jump. All other functions are secondary. I don't care what breaks. Fix the rest on the move. Get the propulsion up. Get us the hell outta here right now!"

The Bridge crew stare at the main display intensely for what feels like an eternity. Suddenly, with a whirling sound the ship jolts.

"The first wave is almost here, Captain!" The Senior Operator shouts, buckling up.

.

Helios rises. A dimensional anomaly appears in front of the ship, and with a 'woosh!' Helios disappears into the trans-dimensional gate in the air. But before the hole closes, the first group of masked mages arrives. Some of them interfere with the space-time gateway, maintaining it open. The rest of the group enters the pathway, numbering over a hundred. In the distant air, the larger second wave from the Ziggurat is flying in at an incredible speed.

.

"Captain, I can't close the gate behind! They are doing something!" a Bridge operator reports. There is a sense of panic on the Bridge.

"Full speed ahead!"

The sensor operator has brought up the rearview onto the main display. As Helios speeds away they could see a group of people pouring inside the path.

"Let's turn on the mana sensor." Griffith orders. The sensor powers on without being overloaded.

"Readings, Captain. About 150 mages." The sensor operator is shouting. "Double As. Triple As!"

The Captain's jaw drops.

"Son of a-"

The main display shows another group entering the pathway. A seemingly endless stream of people.

"Another group, Captain! Fuck, me, two thousand mages- A plus, double, triple As…" the operator turns pale. "Holy shit, sir, S ranks among them!"

.

The hooded woman sits in her throne, contemplating. In front of her is a group of masked mages; their masks and overall showing more signs of age; clearly seniors among the masked people.

"It's a Bureau ship. Wherever it's heading back must be a Bureau Administrated world."

The mages stand in appreciation.

The hooded woman is pleased. She now has several options. One: Take the ship. Two: travel from the world on the other side of the gate. Either way, her goal has come within reach.

She waves the senior mages off. They bow politely and leave the throne room. She stands up and enters the backroom, where in the center of the dimly lit room stands a large cylindrical container. She caresses the glassy surface. Inside the clear liquid-filled container floats a small blond girl, eyes closed, sleeping forever.

**#**

.

Capital Defense Commander Hayate Yagami is ushered into the large conference room inside Sail Force HQ. She is late, but then again it was such short notice. An urgent message came directly from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, telling her to drop everything and report to Sail Force HQ.

"Pardon me for being late, sir." She salutes the top-dog in the room, the Bureau Security Adviser. A Sail Force ensign guides her to the vacant seat next to pale-faced Chief Enforcer Harlaown. As Hayate takes her seat, she notices Teana standing a few steps behind Fate, biting nails. Next to her stands Inspector Verossa Acous, leaning on the wall, observing intensely the back of the head of Chief Enforcer.

"Lieutenant general, we have a situation." Lindy informs the young general. She nodes to the Naval Intelligence's Senior Mission Operator standing at the front of the room. He nods back.

"Commander Yagami, I will quickly fill you in on the situation." The Operator proceeds.

"Yesterday, Helios was hit hard by a local mana storm and lost most of its functions including her Cloak. Thanks to the crew efforts, she regained propulsion and navigation within twelve hours, but cloak remained off."

Hayate immediately knows what's up.

"Let me guess. They got spotted?"

"Exactly, Madam. As I speak now, Helios is on its way back to Vaizen at full speed...ETA 48 hours."

This puzzles the young general. Full speed? She looks around the room. It looks like the others have already heard the explanation before she arrived.

"Full speed because Helios is being chased by a large group of mages, whom we deem hostile." The Naval Intelligence operator answers. Hayate raises her eyebrows. She is not sure why she in particular is called into the meeting. Is the Capital in danger?

"How large of a hostile group are we talking about?" she asks.

The Senior Operator wipes the sweat off from his forehead.

"Slightly over two thousand...average rank: double A-"

Hayate does a quick math in her head.

"That's equivalent to a corps strength!"

"That's why we have a situation, Commander Yagami. I need your honest and objective assessment. Can Capital Defense handle this?" The Bureau Security Adviser gets to the business.

Hayate is puzzled.

"Erm...with all due respect, sir, it's Vaizen. I'm Midchilda."

Lindy steps in.

"Vaizen mobilization takes at least a month. Capital Defense, especially Rapid Response, is the closest and the most ready."

Hayate thinks about it for a moment, fingers drumming on the table. 'It's not my fault Vaizen does not have a Rapid Response of their own.' She wants to protest but decides not to. She turns to the Naval Intelligence man.

"Two thousand hostiles coming to Vaizen in 48 hours…is that right?"

"Give or take a couple hours, but yes."

Hayate sighs.

"Sir, Madam, my Raptor and the Regular divisions will take a full week to mobilize and deploy to Vaizen. Rapid Response would take 72 hours, but Nakajima's battalion is currently on duty. She can be up and combat ready in Vaizen within the next 24 hours...and Vita can back her up in 48 hours just in time to…" She is not happy with the idea. "But that will be a single battalion taking on a corps strength hostiles in the first encounter. Not to mention the fact that we are THE Capital Defense."

Hayate notices her friend Fate's hand shaking on the table.

"Can it be done?" asks the Security Adviser.

"Sir?" asks Hayate back, in the tone that says 'are you serious?'

"Can it be done?" the man asks again, this time more firmly. Hayate thinks about what she would need.

"With the FULL dedicated support from the Air Armament and the Sail Force, Nakajima and Vita could MAYBE buy enough time for Rapid Response. Signum, in return, would have to hold for a WEEK for my two other divisions. Then MAYBE I could hold for the month until Vaizen mobilizes...at a great cost. That's a lot of maybes and a significant loss of the Capital assets, sir." Are you satisfied now, thinks Hayate.

"Orbital bombardment by the Sail Force is out of the question. Vaizen is an administrated world." Lindy makes it even more difficult for Hayate.

"We can't bombard our own land, especially because Vaizen is the heart of our technological advancement. The political backlash would be too great." Adds the Security Adviser.

At this point, Hayate is visibly upset.

"Sir, am I misunderstanding something, or are you trying to make me say, with my own words, Capital Defense will fail in Vaizen?"

"Don't address me in that tone, lieutenant general!" The Security Adviser snaps but soon regains his composure. He puts his patient smile back on.

"Now...am I correct in understanding that it would be a very difficult and risky job for Capital Defense to handle the current situation in Vaizen, yes?"

"Right, correct, sir." Hayate answers politely. There is a rush of mumblings and murmurs in the room. Hayate can see what is to come next.

Lindy Harlaown, Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, buries her head in hands.

"Close the Vaizen gate." She says weakly.

"No!" Fate jumps up from her seat.

"Close the gate in Vaizen." The Bureau Security Adviser himself orders. The Naval Intelligence man tries to protest but can't.

From the back of the conference room, the Strategic Arms officer stands up, trying to get attention.

"Sir and madam. You do realize Deputy Director Harlaown is required to unlock the limiter placed on Bookworm?"

"Oh, that's right!" Fate's face brightens up a bit. The Strategic Arms officer continues.

"If we lose Deputy Director Harlaown, Bookworm would be out of commission for at least half a year. We'd need to reset and reimpose the limit protocol with a replacement authorization figure. And that takes months, sir."

"In terms of-" Lindy, her head still buried in hands, chokes mid-sentence. She tries again. "In terms of the Bureau's overall defense, a temporary loss of Bookworm is acceptable."

Fate slams on the table.

"Mom! You can't-"

"He is a sworn soldier! So am I!" shouts her mother looking up, eyes red. For a moment the conference room is filled with an awkward silence.

"Ahem," The Security Adviser breaks the silence. "What does Bookworm herself say about this?" he asks, tossing the ball to Hayate.

Hayate hates it but she too is a soldier. Trying as best as she can to avoid looking at her friend Fate, she answers with a trembling voice.

"Sir, given the immediate risk threatening Vaizen, the loss of Deputy Director Harlaown, and consequently my Bookworm self,...is...acceptable." She hangs her head low.

Fate retches and covers her mouth with a hand. She excuses herself and rushes out of the conference room.

.

Chief Enforcer Harlalown rushes into a cubicle and throws up. When she is done, she washes her mouth and face at a washbasin. She looks hard into the mirror. She sees the face of someone who agrees closing the gate on her brother is the logical solution. She punches her reflected face, shattering the mirror. She runs out.

**#**

.

The Bridge crew are slumped back in their seats, dismayed. Helios has just been informed of the decision.

"Understood, thank you for informing us. Helios out." Griffith ends communication. He turns around to his crew.

"Well, people. We won't be getting home."

"What now, Captain?" asks a crew.

"Let's just keep going for now." Says the Captain. "We go as close to home as possible. At least that'd make it easier for the guys retrieving what's left of us."

There is a gloomy silence on the Bridge. Chrono nudges Yuuno.

"Sorry, I got you into this." He means it. Professor just shrugs.

"Hey, I signed the waiver."

"You know...you aren't really a wimp as I thought you'd be." Chrono admits with a bitter smile.

"Ha, now you admit it!"

Deputy Director Harlaown punches Professor's injured shoulder. They laugh as Deputy Director rises from his seat. He addresses the crew.

"Sorry guys. Given what's behind us, this is the right decision."

The crew just nod. No hard feelings. Griffth pokes one of his operators.

"Their progress?"

The operator checks his console.

"The first group is right behind us, with the second wave far behind. Both are a tiny bit faster than us, Captain. The smaller first wave will be on top of Helios about the time we reach Vaizen, give or take an hour."

The Captain orders Helios maintain course and speed when a tiny beeping sound comes from a console. The Sensor Operator does a double-take at what he sees.

"Erm...sorry, Captain?"

"What is it?" asks the Captain.

"Mana surge detected. The path has widened."

Another operator looks at his console. His eyes pop out.

"What the hell is this?"

The Sensor Operator fiddles with his console. The Senior Operator comes over to see what's happening. After adjusting some sensor parameters they finally see it.

"Inbound! Inbound! Hyperson-! No, it's way beyond that!" The Senior Operator shouts.

"Shit. Are they speeding up?" asks Griffith, worried that the pursuers are closing in fast. The operators collectively shake their heads.

"No, Captain! It's coming from the Vaizen side! Single mage! Double S! What the fuck?"

**#**

.

Back in Sail Force HQ, everyone is in a gloomy mood. Even if the gate was closed and the immediate threat averted, the fact that a couple hundred thousand hostile people from an unknown world have been actively looking for a Bureau world remained. They intensely discussed what would be the appropriate alert level and how long to maintain such status, but failed to reach a firm conclusion. It didn't help Lindy has remained silent with her head buried in hands for the rest of the meeting.

The Security Adviser is about to call for another meeting in the near future when he notices the Mission Operator whispering into his communication device. Everyone follows the Adviser's gaze and suddenly the whole room is eavesdropping on the conversation.

"-she what? really? OK, thank you. Keep it open for now. I will get back to you soon." The Senior Mission Operator notices the curious eyes on him. He beams an awkward smile.

"Erm...we have a report from Vaizen Staging Dock."

Lindy jerks her head up. Eyes wild.

"Don't tell me-"

"Yup, she did." The man nods. To this, the Security Adviser demands to know what is going on.

"Sir, I just got a report from Vaizen. Chief Enforcer Harlaown has entered the gate."

Teana runs out of the room, pulling her hair, cursing her boss.

Lindy sits up in her seat and leans over to the Security Adviser.

"What now, sir?"

The Security Adviser is in deep thoughts with shut eyes, pinching his nostrils. He opens his eyes again.

"Strategic Arms?"

The Liaison Officer from Strategic Arms springs up.

"Sir, unlike Bookworm, if we close the gate on Lightning it's a permanent loss."

"So we are looking at two major strategic assets out of commission?" The Adviser asks.

"Not only that. If Doomsday finds out we closed the gate on Lightning, we lose her, too, sir." The Strategic Officer is very familiar with the relationship between his assets.

"Oh yeah? If we close the gate on BOTH my kids, Doomsday won't be the only thing you lose." Lindy adds icily. The Security Adviser looks around the room, seeking more opinions.

"So besides one angry mom knocking on my door, we are looking at losing most of our strategic options?"

"Sir, allow me to remind you they have been actively probing for a Bureau world. 'Bruteforcing the multiverse' as Professor said. We might dodge a bullet for now by closing the Vaizen gate, but it's a matter of time they find an administrated world." Hayate points out, worried. If there is going to be a shitstorm at some point in the future she at least wants to have all the options in her hands. Lindy chimes in.

"Sir, it would be a serious permanent dent in our defense capability. We might find ourselves facing a horde of hostiles in the future with very limited options in our hands."

The room agrees. None of them, including the Security Adviser himself, believes maintaining high alert status indefinitely is possible. It is better to fight in Vaizen now. Fate has nudged the Bureau into a war.

"All forces, initiate full mobilization." The Adviser announces his decision. His eyes meet Hayate's.

"Lieutenant general, I am sorry to impose this on you. Vaizen is yours."

Hayate stands up, getting ready to leave.

"Sir, I'd like to return to my HQ and get things moving." The Adviser nods. She continues. "But before I leave I request Vaizen force be under my command."

"Granted."

Hayate takes a deep breath.

"Madam Chairwoman, I will buy you the time in Vaizen. I promise you I'll get your kids safe back home." She salutes and hastily leaves the room. Hayate mouthes "Thank you" to the Strategic Arms Liaison Officer as she walks past. A nod and a smile are returned. A small fairy-like girl in Ground Armament Service uniform appears next to Hayate's head, taking orders as the commanding officer of Capital Defense Corps leaves.

Suddenly very tired, the Bureau Security Adviser slumps back on his chair.

"You know what? Fuck Harlaowns."

"Thank you, sir." Says Lindy, knowing he doesn't mean it.

"Send me the papers, and I will sort out the formalities with the Managing Directors." He sighs. "Jeez...Really? We are going into a war over three ladies?"

Lindy bursts out laughing.

"Well, when you put it like that...yes."

"But no orbital bombardment, OK?" says the Adviser scornfully.

**#**

.

Major general Signum, the commander of Capital Defense's Rapid Response Division, is a strong faced woman with an appearance of not more than thirty. She's having a tele-conversation with Reinforce when her junior officers trickle into her office.

"...Understood. We go Vaizen. Reinforce, I leave Hayate in your care then." Signum ends the call. She studies the officers gathered in front of her. She does not see any anxiety nor excitement in their faces. To them, it's just their job.

"Alright, Rapid Response, Princess wants us to set up in Vaizen. Apparently, a Naval Intelligence ship named Helios is leading a swarm of a hostile force."

She pulls out a large holo-map of Vaizen and continues. "This place here at the seaside is the Staging Dock. About two thousand double A hostiles are expected to emerge from a trans-dimensional gate here in 46 hours."

Signum looks at Major Subaru Nakajima, the Punchkid. When they first met Subaru was just a teenage girl. But now she's all grown up and is responsible for the lives of 300 or so soldiers under her command.

"Subaru, take your battalion and form blockades inland. Primary objective is to close the gate once Helios passes through. In case you can't close the gate, hold the hostiles off. Delay their advance."

Subaru exchanges glances with short red-haired Major Vita, the commander of Punchkid's sister battalion Anvil.

"Major general, with all due respect, two thousand double As is a corps strength." Subaru comments, but Signum has already moved on.

"Zafira, take your Recon Company past the gate and link up with Helios. Escort her out to safety. While you are at it, assess the enemy strength if you can, but that's a secondary goal. Helios is your primary. Once Helios is out, assist Punchkid at her discretion."

A dog like Captain nods. Subaru tries once again to get her point across, but Agito, a fairy-like small lady flies over and hovers next to Signum's ears.

"Ginga is mobilizing. I've also initiated unpacking the Raptor droids." Agito reports.

"Good." Signum nods. "Subaru, I'll be sending Vita as soon as she is ready, followed by Ginga's 1st regiment and the Raptor regiment-"

"But that still doesn't address the issue Punchkid has raised. She's gonna be on her own up against corps strength enemy!" Vita protests. Signum gives a small smile.

"Relax. I'm not asking you guys to die. You have my permission to give ground, but-"

"I can work with that. Thank you." Subaru appreciates. "But how much ground can I

give?"

Signum points at the Interworld Teleportation Terminal located some 100km westward inland from the Staging Dock.

"Expect this place to be a major evacuation point for Vaizen citizens. To be honest I don't know if the enemy will come this way, though." She faces her junior officers one by one. "Nevertheless; this Terminal. Until the evacuation is confirmed complete, we hold it at all cost. At all cost. If we manage to do that I'd consider our Division's objective complete."

The officers of Rapid Response division nod.

Signum can already see the trouble. In the coming week, she will be operating her division in some 100km depth, while protecting the Terminal. Punched and Anvil are likely to be surrounded unless they give a significant amount of grounds. The issue is the more grounds they give, the more heat falls onto the Terminal. Princess has been given a very difficult task indeed.

"Vita, Subaru, you two support each other. Expect situations where you are completely surrounded. You need to be prepared to punch your way out."

"What kind of support could we expect?" asks Vita. A legitimate question.

"The higher-ups don't want orbital bombardment in Vaizen, so minimum support from Sail Force if any. They are going to have hands full with the evacuation, so don't expect much."

"That's understandable. Not happy, though." Vita comments. Subaru nods in agreement.

"Vaizen Air Wing has a squadron up and ready, which is good. One more next week. Even better; the Capital's Midchilda Air Wing is loaning out the 1st Group to Vaizen, so that's two squadrons more." Signum can see the faces lighting up.

"1st Group? Isn't that White Devil's?" Asks Subaru eagerly. Signum smiles and nods.

"The one and only."

**#**

.

On the outskirts of Cranagan, Midchilda, Air Armament Service stations the Capital Air Wing which consists of two groups of two squadrons each, totaling 64 autonomous combat flight mages. Because not every mage can fly, Air Armament has always suffered a very limited recruitment pool. Add the brutal filter, that is the academy and vigorous training, to the post-recruitment stage, only a few make it to the actual combat units. In simple terms, a flight mage is an elite mage packing more firepower and durability than a dozen or more average Ground Armament servicemen combined. Among these elites, only the best of the best are given the honor to defend the Capital's sky.

Midchilda Air Wing's 1st Group is especially notorious for being a handpicked collection of the top aces; a proud bunch of airborne death dispensers. There is a rumor going around, saying the 1st Group hides a beast; to which many people believe it refers to the Group's leader, call-sign White Wing, but more widely and affectionately known as the White Devil, or Doomsday to those in the know.

And now the men and women of the 1st Group are gathered in their hangar, sitting on stools, quietly waiting for their group leader.

1st Group Leader lieutenant colonel Nanoha Takamachi enters the hangar and stands in front of her fellows. After a brief exchange of greetings and jokes with her flight mages, she gets to the business.

"I'm not told the exact detail, but the rumor has it that Naval Intelligence was fooling around and opened a gateway to Hell." The flight mages let out a groan. She continues. "We are expecting some two thousand demons emerging in Vaizen. Consequently, Midchilda Air Wing is ordered to loan out a group to Vaizen to help them fight off the hostiles." She flashes a grin.

"Luckily, that means us."

The flight mages of the 1st Group cheer and hoot in excitement. Nanoha continues.

"Since 1st squadron is on duty, you and I will move out first to Vaizen. We will be flying alongside a squadron from Vaizen Air." She checks the time. "We haven't much time, so travel lightly. Captain Ru Lusche?" Nanoha looks to a young female officer whose petite teen-like appearance makes it seem she's in the wrong place.

"Yes, madam." The captain nods.

"Bring up the rear with 2nd squadron along with the rest of our gears."

"Leave it to me, madam."

A flight mage raises his hand.

"Madam, who orders our sorties? Midchilda Wing? Vaizen Air?"

"Good question." Nanoha gives a thumbs up. She has heard a joint task force is being put together under her friend Hayate's command.

"Consider lieutenant general Yagami as the de facto theater Command. We fly where she points."

Another flight mage asks.

"Isn't she your close friend?"

"She is." Nanoha nods. She is worried. Generally, Nanoha does her things in the air while Hayate does own things on the ground, their activities coordinated by a buffer of mission operators and coordinators. However, drawing from past experiences, she can tell the Bureau putting her directly under Hayate's command means there is a major shitstorm on the horizon.

.

Nanoha notices a group of men entering her hangar. It's her own Strategic Arms escort.

"Can I help you, captain?" Nanoha greets the familiar faces. The captain motions to a far corner of the hangar. Excusing herself from her flight mages, Nanoha joins the captain at the corner.

"Captain, do you know what's going on?" She asks in a hushed voice. The man shakes his head.

"Sorry, madam. All I heard is Naval Intelligence fucked up. Lightning has dived into some portal to save her brother, and suddenly there's a war in Vaizen."

Nanoha's eyes go wide.

"Fate-chan? What's she got to do with it? Besides, weren't there like a bunch of people tagging her?"

The captain shakes his head again.

"Sorry, madam. She just flew out of Sail Force HQ, and we didn't know where she was going and…well she is among the fastest person in the multiverse." He shrugs. "By the time we got the report she went through the Midchilda-Vaizen gate, she was already gone."

"Oh boy…" Nanoha now has one more thing to worry about, but she cannot be mad at the man in front of her. When Fate wants to go fast, there is only a handful of people who can keep up.

"Ahem-" The captain clears his throat. "Lieutenant colonel Takamachi, an order from Strategic Arms Command effective immediately. You are to drop everything, and proceed to the predesignated position V. There you will prime for a potential Doomsday activation until further notice."

Nanoha thinks for some seconds, searching her memory to look up where position V is. It's Vaizen.

"They want me to delete Vaizen?"

Her voice is loud enough to make heads turn. She gestures to her people to mind their businesses. The heads turn back, but the ears remain zeroed in.

Strategic Arms Command operates somewhat out of the regular Armament Services in order to prevent its assets being used as tactical means by the regular forces. It reports directly to the Managing Directors and has the authority to elevate the readiness level of its assets if deemed necessary. Upon discovering the impending invasion in Vaizen it has decided the worst-case scenario is likely, and hence is getting ready to activate Doomsday, a guaranteed retaliation to the invaders; effectively writing Vaizen off as lost.

The Strategic Arms officer is understandably uncomfortable delivering such an order.

"The order is to be prepared. Not actually-" He sees Nanoha's face. After some hesitation he suggests. "Do you wish to initiate the sanity verification protocol?"

"Yes, please. Thank you. I'm not going to hide in some bunker." Says Nanoha, arms crossed. "Especially not in Vaizen." She adds.

.

The captain initiates a video-conference with Strategic Arms Command. The face of the Strategic Arms Liaison Officer appears in front of them.

"Hello, captain. You calling me means…I assume she demanded sanity verification?

The captain nods. Nanoha butts in.

"I declare the order I received premature, unnecessary, and unjustified."

The Liaison Officer nods.

"Understood. Let me get the representatives online."

Soon the faces of the Bureau Security Adviser, Chairwoman of JCS, and Capital Defense Commander appear next to the holo-image of the Strategic Arms Officer. Hayate is visibly puzzled, but Lindy, seeing the other participants in the conference, immediately recognizes what this is about.

"Is this a sanity verification?"

"Correct, Madam Chairwoman." The strategic arms officer nods. The Security Adviser seems excited as this is his first time. In fact, this is the first time in history.

"Sanity verification? Then why am I in?" Hayate is still puzzled. After all, she is a mere corps-level commander.

"Lieutenant general Yagami will represent the theater command's opinion." Answers the conference host.

"I am the theater command?" Hayate, hearing the big responsible position, is suddenly scared. She didn't sign up for this.

"You are." Says everyone in the conference call.

The strategic arms officer proceeds, ignoring Hayate's shocked face.

"Strategic Arms Command has ordered lieutenant colonel Nanoha Takamachi, code name Doomsday, to immediately proceed to a predesignated position bunker in Vaizen, and there to prime for a strike of repeated mass destruction. Intended Target: Vaizen. Intended Strike schedule: Undecide."

The Bureau Security Adviser's jaw drops.

"You gotta be kidding me."

The host continues.

"Now, then, Theater Command. Strategic Arms Command sees there might be no other option but to deploy Doomsday in Vaizen in the very near future, and wishes to have the means to do so ready in place. Do you concur?"

Hayate, face red, is seriously pissed.

"Wow, not only you are saying my corps will fail, you skip Lightning and Bookworm altogether, and go straight to Doomsday. Great." She scoffs. "No, I can't concur. We haven't even had the first engagement yet. There isn't enough data to base such judgment.

The strategic arms officer apologizes.

"But with the two Harlaowns absent, Doomsday is what we have left in our hands…" he glances at Nanoha. "and to be honest, it did sound very dire at the meeting." He legitimately points out.

"Yeah, I understand. I feel kinda insulted, though, mind you. I thought we were friends."

After apologizing again, the strategic arms officer moves on.

"Now, then, to the rest of the Armed Forces. Madam Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, do you concur?"

Lindy also doesn't concur for the same reason as given by Hayate.

"There is not enough data to justify the assessment we would be that desperate in the near future." She comments.

The Security Adviser, representing the Managing Directors, doesn't concur either.

"It's already bad enough we have a horde of invaders popping out in Vaizen. That's practically next door to Midchilda." He gives his reasoning. If the word ever gets out the Bureau wrote Vaizen off as lost and prepared to annihilate the world, even if they don't actually do it, that would be the end of the administration. The Bureau will not have enough political resources to tank the consequent outrage.

The strategic arms officer nods. He has heard enough.

"Lieutenant colonel, the order has failed sanity verification. Consider it null and void, and return to your regular duties."

"Thank you. Thank you!" Nanoha thanks everyone.

The host is about to end the conference call but Hayate interrupts.

"Hey, wait. What if me the Bookworm wants my order sanity verified, but me the Theater Command concurs? What happ-"

Lindy gives her a "are you kidding me?" look.

"Hayate, if you do that we will have your sanity verified."

.

The captain ends the call as everyone laughs at Hayate's blushing face.

"Satisfied, madam?" the man asks. Nanoha thanks him.

"Are you following me to Vaizen, too, captain?" she asks.

The Security Force captain shakes his head as escorting Nanoha in a warzone won't be necessary. In fact, he would be a liability.

"When it comes to air combats, I think you are safer with your people than with us, no? We are more of urban escort specialists."

He wants to but doesn't mention the fact that a strategic asset shouldn't be fighting in the warzone sky in the first place. Nanoha senses this and winks. She will not let anyone stop her from flying.

"Will you please keep an eye on Vivio for me?"

The man shrugs.

"Babysitting. That's my other specialty, Madam."

**#**

.

It's silent on Helios' bridge; the crew drinking coffee and tea while tending to their respective duties. Chrono eyes the tumbler in Griffith's hand.

"Is that the thing that hit me?" he asks. Captain Lowran checks his tumbler.

"This? Yes. Remarkable it survived a collision with your head…Do you want a rematch?"

Chrono is sure he heard suppressed laughter from the crew. He waves the captain off and turns to Yuuno.

"Yo, remember before we were hit by the storm... when we were reporting to Mainland? You were implying you had an idea what that place is."

"Oh, yeah, that? I have some vague ideas, yes." Professor nods, to which Chrono motions him to go on.

"OK...I mean we have to do a proper survey to be sure but based on what I've seen from the optics and the ambient magic...I narrowed it down to two possibilities."

"Which are?" Chrono urges Yuuno to keep going.

"I think we are dealing with either the ancient Belka or..." Yuuno pauses for a moment. He knows the implication. "or Al-"

They are interrupted by the communication operator reporting an urgent call from the Mainland.

"Bring it up on the main display." Says the captain.

Chrono gives Professor a 'you can't be serious' look before shifting his attention to the main display. The face of the Senior Mission Operator appears.

"Helios, I have good news." The man beams a smile. "You have an order from the very very top." He points up. "Objective: Rendezvous with Fate Testarossa Harlaown, and ensure her safe return to Vaizen. The gate will remain open until mission complete, that's the good news."

"God damn it, I knew it was her." Chrono face-palms. The mission operator continues.

"A recon company from Rapid Response will link up with you and provide escort. Additionally an LS class warship Wolfram will enter the pathway to form a blockade."

Griffith is rather puzzled.

"What changed their minds? They were OK with losing Helios." He asks.

"They learned Miss Harlaown is also on the line. Apparently, if we close the gate on Lightning we can also kiss goodbye to Doomsday. And that's on top of Bookworm being out of commission." the operator explains. For unlocking Bookworm Chrono is sort of replaceable, but if the Bureau loses both Fate and Nanoha on top of Hayate being out of commission…Fighting now is the better option.

"That was pretty much the logic behind this decision." Says the mission operator. He continues. "And, Helios, one more order for you... Actually, it's for Miss Harlaown..." he scratches his head. "From Strategic Arms, but she's not answering any calls, so you are instructed to pass it on and make sure she complies." The mission operator quickly consults a memo in his hand.

"Until further notice, under no circumstances, she is to risk herself in a combat activity with the hostiles in pursuit of Helios."

Captain Lowran slams the armrest of his seat.

"Great...We have hostiles literally riding on our tail. Chief Enforcer on board is the best weapon the Bureau could possibly offer in this situation, but, no, we gotta babysit her so she doesn't fight…"

"That's my sister for you." Chrono sighs.

Yuuno timidly raises a hand to get the attention of the mission operator.

"Er…was I ever mentioned? You know...during all this top brass meeting and stuff?"

"Sorry, Professor, no. Sorry." The operator answers sympathetically.

"OK." Yuuno pouts, disappointed.

**#**

.

Sailors are boarding the warship Wolfram at a Sail Force's dock in Midchilda. The dock is slowly being filled with armed soldiers, armored personnel carriers, and cargo trucks as Subaru's Battalion is moving in. The progress is rather slow as Wolfram takes up much of the space on the dock.

Captain Zafira, a dog-like man and the leader of the Rapid Response's Recon Company, is overseeing his company getting ready to board the warship. Subaru stands by his side, waiting patiently for Wolfram to clear the way.

"I guess this is one of those rare instances a last-minute change of plan works in our favor." Subaru comments.

Sail Force has decided to send Wolfram into the path in an attempt to block the swarm following Helios. The warship's captain has generously offered to take Rapid Recon along as well as dropping off Subaru's heavy cargo's at Vaizen's Staging Dock en route.

"I'd really love to have some orbital bombardment, but oh well…" Subaru laments.

"Don't worry too much. It's going to be none other than Nanoha herself flying over our heads." Says Zafira. "That's as good as any orbital bombardment." He adds.

A dog-like woman named Alph, spotting a lieutenant's rank, approaches, and salutes.

"Captain, Rapid Recon is ready to board."

Subaru waves hello.

"Alph-san, a special request from his Princess." She points at Zafira and continues. "Give a nice spank on your Princess's butt." Subaru moves her pointing finger to Alph. The two Recon officers laugh out loud.

"Will you be right behind us?" asks Zafira. Subaru nods.

"Yeah, as soon as Wolfram is out of the way... I'll be right at the gate waiting for you guys. Come back in one piece."

The two recon officers salute and leave.

.

As Subaru watches the recon company boarding Wolfram, a private call from her best friend Teana comes.

"Subaru, you gotta help me. I've been trying to get to Vaizen ever since, but they won't let me." Teana sounds desperate. All the traffic going into Vaizen has been restricted to military traffic only.

"Let me tag along!" Teana pleads. Subaru winces.

"No, Teana. That's a nope. You do realize I'm on what's practically a suicide mission? No way I'm bringing my best friend into that." Subaru can sense the frustration on the other side of the call.

"Argh! Subaru, you know I can look after myself."

Subaru is about to speak when with a nauseating wobbling sound, a pulsating dimensional gate appears on the dock. Wolfram very slowly rises above the ground, and smoothly enters the path to Vaizen. Subaru gestures to her assistant to get the battalion move into the facility. Once she receives the confirmation Wolfram has cleared the Staging Dock in Vaizen, her Punchkid battalion will move in and set up a defense. She returns to the call.

"Sorry, Teana. The answer is still no. You sit tight and safe."

**#**

.

At Capital Defense Corps HQ things are in motion. Hayate has ordered a temporary HQ be setup in Vaizen and thus equipment in portable forms are taken out of storage and checked for working conditions. If passed, they are carefully packed for travel and put in containers. Everyday-use documents are copied onto secured portable devices so they can be taken to the destination. Lieutenant general Hayate Yagami, nicknamed as Princess by the men and women serving under her, called so mainly because she is surrounded by the knights of mythical legends, is readying to go to Vaizen. And she intends to come back to an intact command post ready to serve her immediately upon her return. But she first has to clear one major obstacle between her and Vaizen; Signum.

"You are absolutely not coming to Vaizen until I've established a stable defensive position." Signum declared before leaving for Vaizen. She even glared at the HQ staff, with a hand firmly on the grip of her sword. That got her message across. So when Hayate demands "Come on, let's go!" her officers would shake heads.

"Sorry, madam, that's not happening."

"But I'm the COMMANDER!" Hayate would exclaim but to no avail. When Signum says Princess stays here, Princess stays here. Hence she is reluctantly confined to her office upon 'strong recommendation' by her staff because venturing out into the busy hallways or other sections of the building would mean she would get in busy people's way and risk being trampled over.

'I'm over thirty. I'm a general. I command a freaking army, but no, the entire corps treats me like I'm a baby.' Hayate grumbles, sitting on her large wooden desk, feet dangling.

"Wolfram made the jump with Zafira on board. Subaru has started jumping, too. She's behind the schedule thanks to Wolfram skipping the queue-" reports Reinforce, hovering in front of her boss.

"Sail Force Dock, Sail Force ship first." Says Hayate. Reinforce nods.

"Vita is assembling, too. She will be ready to jump latest tomorrow evening."

"Good." Says Hayate, taking out a Hello Kitty pouch from a pocket on her jacket.

She has received a call from Vaizen Defense. They are mobilizing and so far have two unrelated regular companies up and ready. Where does Hayate want them?

"Attach them to Punchkid?" Reinforce suggests. Hayate shakes her head; that would reduce Subaru's unit cohesion.

"Unless Signum wants them for something, put them at the Terminal first. I hear Vaizen Enforcers have their hands full with evacuating people, so help them as much as we can." Hayate orders. She opens a Hello Kitty pouch and produces a cigarette. Reinforce gives a disapproving look, but continues with her report.

"Roger that. Also...it turns out a Caledfwlch factory in Vaizen has a batch of Raptor combat droids packaged, ready for delivery to Fedikia."

"Fuck Fedikia. My Raptors now." Hayate lights the cigarette, draws a long puff and winks at scornful Reinforce. She leans over the desk and pulls out a Hello Kitty ashtray from a drawer.

"Actually, let's have Shamal set up her Field Hospital at the factory. They should have all the equipment she needs." Says Hayate. Reinforce nods. The little fairy now has to sort out some serious paperwork with Caledfwlch.

"Are we done yet? Can we go to Vaizen now?" asks Hayate impatiently.

Reinforce sighs.

"We will be there soon."


	4. 4: What Are You Doing?

Flying at an inhuman speed, Fate shivers from the freezing coldness of the pitch-black darkness that elongates and connects two separate worlds millions of kilometers apart. It is almost magical that she is still alive, but then again Fate is an extremely powerful mage.

She spots Helios far ahead. A tiny spec of metal racing down the space-time pipeline. There is a blip of light; a signal. Helios blinks twice. Fate waves a hand and a bright golden light cloud surrounds her, trailing sparkles as she rockets through the trans-dimensional path.

When she is several kilometers away from Helios, she receives a call.

"Chief Enforcer, can you hook around to our stern?" a young male voice guides her.

Fate passes Helios and makes a tight turn, now flying right behind the ship. She turns her head to see the first group of pursuers not too far away.

"You should see a blinking light. Underneath is our loading bay door." Says the voice.

Fate locates the door and gets close.

"I'm at the bay door." She tells the bay operator on the other side.

With an alarm sound, the loading bay door slides open. Fate flies in, shaking badly. A young male sailor quickly slides the door close, locking it. He salutes to the esteemed head of law enforcement.

"Welcome on board, Chief Enforcer."

With arms crossed Fate shivers.

"God, it's freezing outside." She bobs up and down, legs crossed. "Loo. Loo! Where is the loo?"

.

In the canteen, Fate is devouring sandwiches with Professor Scrya and her brother sitting on both sides of her. Yuuno shakes his head.

"18 hours trans-dimensional flight in the freezing cold, no food, no drink, no restroom. Are you mad?"

Fate says something with a mouthful. Chrono smiles and pours some more coffee into Fate's mug.

"Mom's very angry."

Fate scoffs. 'I bet she is.' She thinks to herself.

"Did you see them outside?" Yuuno asks. Fate nods, biting off a large chunk of a ham sandwich.

"What was your plan?"

Mouth still full, Fate points at herself, then to the outside, then shakes her fist.

Chrono examines his sister. Her long blond hair is now a tangled mess from flying through a crack in the fabric of the space-time. A gray-black double-breasted half coat uniform over the crumpled white blouse and her usual modest gray-black skirts. The Office issue beret roughly folded and shoved into a side pocket. No way is this a fitting appearance of a high ranking official of the Bureau. And no way is he going to let her go outside and fight alone.

"We can't let you do that, Fate. An order came from the very very top." Chrono informs his sister.

Fate has finished the last of the sandwiches.

"From the top? What orders?" she asks.

"You are ordered to avoid any and all fights. Our order is to escort you back home safely." Her brother's answer confuses Fate.

"What do you mean? They aren't closing the gate?"

Chrono chuckles.

"Close the gate on you, and have Nanoha go on a rampage? I don't think so. That'd be like losing three strategic assets in one go...remember there's Bookworm and me, too."

"For all intents and purposes, Fate," comments Yuuno. "You've become Helios' mission."

.

A large group of more than a hundred masked mages is in hot pursuit after Helios. The cracked masked person is flying alongside the little mage.

"Did you see that person going in?" asks the little one. The person nods. There seems to be a door on the back of the ship.

"I will try to see if I can get in." Says the little one.

"Oh, you can go faster?" The person is impressed. The little one gives a thumbs up and then accelerates. Few others speed up and join the little masked mage, gradually closing the distance to the ship.

.

On the Bridge, the crew takes notice.

"Captain, some of them are gaining speed. At this rate, they will catch up before we reach Vaizen." An operator reports. Griffith groans as another operator makes his report.

"Mass ahead! Wolfram has entered the pathway."

The Captain's face brightens. He asks for communication to the warship.

"Wolfram, this is Helios. Welcome to the party." Griffith hails the other ship. A hearty voice booms, greeting Helios.

"Ahoy, Helios. I see you on my sensor...and damn you got some dedicated fans." There is a chuckle. Wolfram's Captain continues. "Anyway Helios, please confirm. Have you received the package?"

Griffith throws a glance at his special passenger.

"Helios confirms. Precious cargo is safe and sound." He glances again. Fate is dozing off slumped in Chrono's seat. Her brother stands, leaning on the armrest.

"Wolfram, we have a bit of a problem. A small group of our fans is speeding up, closing in." Captain Lowran informs the other party. He hears Wolfram's captain sighing and making orders to the crew.

"Full speed ahead. Wake up the Recon people." Wolfram returns to Helios.

"Helios, can you sail faster?"

"Negative. My engines are already running in the safety margin." Answers Griffith. He notices his operators exchanging meaningful looks with each other and Chrono, who approaches the Captain and whispers something. Captain Lowran turns to his operators. They nod eagerly.

"Wolfram, there might be a way to go faster. I will get back to you. Helios out."

.

Captain Lowran demands an explanation. His Senior Operator points to the ship's status displayed on his console.

"We can go faster if we go over the safety margin."

"Which, of course, risks the engines blowing up, but..." another operator butts in. The operators turn their heads to the sleeping Enforcer.

"We have her, Captain."

Griffith is confused. 'Chief Enforcer? What can she do about the engines?' He wonders.

"Captain, Chief Enforcer is more than strong enough to suppress the power magic from going critical. The engines won't blow up as long as she keeps the magic overflow in check." The Senior Operator explains.

The Captain digests this information for a while. He calls his engine operator and asks if it can be done. The engines operator in the other part of the ship thinks about it for a moment. He finally answers.

"Captain, that's...that's actually feasible; we can probably go up to double our speed as long as she keeps things in check. However, Captain, Helios won't ever sail again."

"Elaborate, please."

"Once the suppression stops we will have about a minute or two before the engines go kaboom," The engines operator explains. The engines will be in an extreme overloaded state. He continues.

"Captain, no matter how we look at it, what you propose results in a frigate sized ship shooting out the Vaizen gate at full speed, ready to explode. Is Vaizen Staging really OK with that?"

**#**

.

In her throne room, the hooded woman is talking with a senior masked mage who reports the appearance of a larger ship within the path.

"That large one must be a Sail Force warship." Observes the hooded woman.

"Do you want us to take it, too, mother?" asks the minion.

The woman addressed as mother contemplates her options. She is undecided. On one hand, taking another ship in addition to the small one would provide her with more options. On the other hand, the large ship is sure to be a cumbersome load.

"Maybe we should have taken the last one, mother." The senior dares to speak out her opinion.

The hooded woman flicks a finger, and the masked mage, caught off guard, flies across the throne room, hitting the wall with a loud yelp. The mother rises.

"I've made my mind up. I will deal with the warship myself - that will show the Bureau pigs they can't stop me. You girls focus on the smaller one."

**#**

.

Zafira's Recon Company is floating in the cold space outside Wolfram, looking at the faraway distance. Soon, a little dot appears.

"That's Helios. Company, get ready to board!" shouts the commanding officer to his soldiers. Captain Lowran's voice enters the communication channel.

"Wolfram, good to see you with my own eyes."

"Helios, be advised Rapid Recon is already out. Please don't run them over." Wolfram's captain greets the smaller ship. Zafira can see Helios coming closer and closer.

"Rapid Recon, I will pass Wolfram's starboard, distance 500m. Will open stern bay 2km ahead from Wolfram." Says Griffith from the other side of the call. Zafira acknowledges and tells his men to get in position. Rapid Recon will board Helios sailing past Wolfram at full speed.

Helios comes closer and closer, trailing small dots of masked mages behind.

.

"Look! That's a big ship!" the little masked mage points to Wolfram. One of her companions in the leading group of six nods.

"Mother said we should focus on the small ship. Ignore the big one."

The little one looks behind to see where the cracked masked person is; far behind with the first wave group. The little masked girl squints her eyes just to make out the larger horde further behind.

.

Helios' loading bay operator is nervously waiting for the go sign from the Bridge. He bites his nails, twitching.

"Passing the 2km mark. Open the stern bay door." A Bridge operator gives him the sign.

The young man dutifully opens the door. Soon enough, men and women of Rapid Recon company start to trickle in. The operator can't help but think of the scene as a video reel of paratroopers jumping out, but in reverse.

.

Through the windows of his Bridge, Wolfram's captain is watching the recon troops board Helios sailing past his ship. He turns to his crew.

"Ready Augusto for fire. Target the larger group far behind."

.

Helios' senior operator reports to Captain Lowran.

"1st and 2nd platoons have completed boarding."

Fate's face brightens up.

"Alph is with the 2nd platoon."

"Keep steady. Don't run over out boys." Orders the captain.

.

The very forward group of the pursuing masked mages are now clearly visible to naked eyes. Zafira, still out in the space, is not happy with how fast they are closing in on Helios. He hails Captain Lowran.

"Helios, some of your fans are too close for my comfort. Can you shoot them with something?"

The reply surprises him.

"Rapid Recon, be advised Helios does not carry mounted weapons on board. We only have the Standard issue Strike Rifles."

Zafira grimaces and calls Wolfram instead.

"Wolfram, could you shoot at the forward group?"

"Negative, Rapid Recon. Your men would be in the line of fire." Comes the reply from Wolfram.

"Damn it." Zafira growls. The hostiles close in steady.

"Rapid Recon, we are priming Augusto. Complete your boarding ASAP." Wolfram advises the recon officer.

.

Zafira boards Helios the last through the closing door.

"Why the hell doesn't Helios have mounted weapons?" he snarls at the innocent loading bay operator. The young man shrugs.

"Captain, Helios is a covert intelligence gathering ship. We go where we shouldn't." The operator explains. If Helios ever gets caught carrying weapons, that would be a massive blow to the Bureau's diplomatic front, provided, of course, there is diplomacy to be carried out.

"Damn you, spies. Which way to the Bridge?"

.

Helios zips past Wolfram at high speed. The little masked mage's group is in pursuit, ignoring Wolfram. Soon after, the cracked masked person's group also flies past the massive warship.

.

"Boarding is complete. Thank you and good hunting, Wolfram." Captain Lowran's voice booms inside Wolfram's Bridge.

"Now get the hell outta here, Helios. See you in Vaizen." Wolfram's captain says goodbye to Helios. He turns to his crew. "Augusto?"

"Captain, Augusto is ready to fire in 30 seconds. The target blob is within the effective range." An operator reports the status. The captain nods.

"Right. Let the small ones through. Fire on the larger group when ready."

The operator nods and starts the countdown.

"Aye aye, Captain. Firing in 25, 24-"

Suddenly an alarm goes off on the Bridge. The sensor operator shouts from his console.

"Mana surge! Something massive is flooding the path, captain!"

Wolfram's captain waves it off.

"Continue with Augusto. Shoot first, ask later!"

.

Helios' Bridge operators are panicking. Ever since the mission started they have seen some weird stuff, but this is too much.

"No, no, no, this can't be!" An operator shouts in despair. The Senior Operator looks over the shoulder and studies the console display.

"What the fuck is this?" he, too, is surprised.

"Calm down and report. What the hell is happening?" Griffith snaps. The Senior Operator reports in disbelief.

"Captain, it's some kind of an attack coming all the way from where we've been."

The sensor console starts beeping, indicating the passive mana sensor is being overloaded.

.

"Firing Augusto in 10, 9, 8 -" Wolfram continues the countdown.

With a high pitched shrieking sound dark violet light fills the trans-dimensional pathway, sending the two thousand or so horde of masked mages surging forward past Wolfram at an impossible speed. The shock front hits Wolfram, which begins to creek and strain under pressure. The eerie violet light solidifies and pierces through the hull, and crushes the warship. Wolfram explodes.

**#**

.

The hooded woman takes her hand out of the dimensional travel gate. Breathing heavily from exhaustion, she descends to the ground. She stumbles a few steps and collapses on all fours.

"Mother, are you alright?" the masked girls rush to her side. The mother waves them off. She just needs to regain her breaths.

"The magic here isn't kind to my old and frail body. It's cured me of my illness, but it's also killing me."

The girls help the woman get up.

"Please don't say such a thing, mother. You are the master of this world."

.

Captain Zafira and lieutenant Alph enter Helios' Bridge, only to find the crew in a state of shock. Fate rushes to Alph and clings to the familiar.

Zafira looks around, confused.

"What was that explosion? Did Wolfram fire Augusto?" He sees Chrono shaking head.

"That was…Wolfram. She's gone."

"Sorry, what?" Zafira can't believe the news.

At this moment an operator reports that the pursuers have gained speed. There are six right behind Helios' tail, and the rest of the horde is closing in too fast.

"That's no good. It took only one of them to take down Lily, and one to wipe out an armed platoon." Says Griffith with a grim face.

"At this rate, they will get us before we pass the Vaizen gate." Says the Senior Operator.

Captain Lowran makes his mind up.

"Damn it, we have no other choices." He turns to Fate. "Can you pull it off, Chief Enforcer?"

Fate, knowing the lives of the crew are in her hands, nods with a determined face. The captain turns to Zafira.

"I will explain what we are up to, but could you have a squad or two on Chief Enforcer in the engines room?"

.

The little masked mage and her group are very close. She extends her hand as if trying to catch the ship with it.

"Just a little bit more, and we can-"

Suddenly Helios lurches forward, doubling her speed, increasing the distance.

.

Back in Helios, Captain Lowran is talking to Major Subaru Nakajima whose face is taking up a large space in the main display.

"-so basically we will be arriving ahead of schedule." Griffith summarizes.

"And you sir will explode over my men's heads." Subaru isn't very impressed with the prospect of a ship blowing up above her position.

"Look, major, can't you pull out a bit? Reposition your guys?" Griffith suggests.

"I can, yes, but it hurts, sir. We just finished digging in, setting up heavy guns…" Subaru is still not convinced. Chrono steps forward.

"Hey, Subaru. It's MY ship and MY Dock that's going kaboom. If I'm OK with blowing up my assets, you are OK with digging another holes."

Subaru finally gives in. She can be heard giving orders to her people.

"But, sir, how will you people get off? Jump off the deck?" asks Subaru from the Staging Dock. Zafira answers this time. He and Alph will teleport the crew out of the ship.

"It would be very nice if you could set up a beacon somewhere safe so we can lock onto it for teleportation."

Subaru's face nods.

"Don't forget your mission, though. Princess wants Fate-san back in one piece."

.

"It's going to get away!"

A masked girl shouts in frustration. Helios is getting farther and farther. The little one clenches her fist.

"Sisters, mama is going to be angry!" That too is something the masked girls dread. "Let's give it all!"

The half dozen mages cheer in agreement. With gritted teeth, they squeeze out their remaining strengths, gaining speed yet again.

.

The sensor operator on the Helios Bridge cannot believe what he sees.

"Oh, shit, it's not working."

"What do you mean it's not working? Did Chief Enforcer fail?" the captain snaps. The operator shakes his head.

"No, Captain, she's doing what's asked, but the ones behind us gained speed yet again. ETA 5 minutes, sir!"

"Nobody can fly this fast!" The operator cannot believe what he sees.

"Chief Enforcer can-" another operator states the fact.

"But they aren't Chief Enforcer, are they!" The Captain snaps. Griffith is frustrated. He stomps feet, cursing. The moment he decided to overload the engines, Helios' fate was sealed. If the pursuers do catch up with Helios before reaching Vaizen…

"We are blowing up Helios for nothing?"

"If we can contain them we can make it, captain." Says Chrono. He looks at Zafira who nods.

"Captain Lowran, I need the crew assembled and ready for teleportation." The Rapid Recon's captain demands. Griffth gets on the PA system.

"All crew, this is Captain speaking. Drop everything and assemble as follows: Upper deck to the Bridge. Lower deck to the Canteen. Propulsion and Bridge stay put until further notice. Arm yourselves; we have intruders expected in five minutes."

Zafira orders lieutenant Alph and her 2nd platoon to the canteen and to prepare for teleporting the crew assembled there.

"But I need to be with Fate!" Alph protests.

"No." Zafira rejects. "Helios crew can't survive the explosion. You must teleport them out to safety!" He proceeds to call the 3rd platoon.

"Secure the engine room and protect Chief Enforcer at all cost. Escort her back to Bridge on my signal."

**#**

.

"Madam, how are you holding up?" asks the engine operator. Fate is standing between two massive engines, each about the size of a large bus. At the eye level, there is a series of pothole windows through which one can see the interior of the engines. Both are filled full with kinetic magic, regulated by mechanical arms and bars controlling the flow of the ever swirling motion happening inside. Fate stands there with both hands outstretched to each side, almost touching the powerful machines, sweating.

"It's been very long two days for me, and I'm tired, and oh god these things are very hot." She laments.

"Yeah, they heat up like that."

A platoon of soldiers enters the section, setting up defensive positions facing the entryway. The PA system announces the impending hull breach.

"Hostiles ON the hull. Prepare for a breach." The captain's voice booms across the ship. As if on cue, several bright yellow beam blades pierce through the wall.

"Oh, god, of all places-" the engines operator panics. He notices Fate is about to take her hands off the engines. "No, no, madam, please stay put! Don't take your hands off!"

The platoon leader repositions his men and tells them to get ready.

With a loud bang, the wall is torn open, and six masked mages flood in. Thirty-some men of the platoon start firing all at once, but it turns out to be a one-sided battle not in their favor.

.

"Breach in the engines section!" The Senior Operator reports. Zafira is also getting reports from his lieutenant. 3rd platoon is engaged.

.

Fate watches in horror as the six intruders cut and slice the soldiers down with their yellow beam blades, but for some reason, they ignore her completely. She wants to help the soldiers, but she knows what it means to take her hands off the engines.

Delivering a fatal blow to the Helios' engines operator, the little masked mage finally looks up at Chief Enforcer, shape-shifting her bright yellow beam blade back to the polearm-like black staff.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"Wha-what?" Fate is confused.

The intruders are checking the corners. The little masked girl kicks the dead operator aside.

"Come on, we have to go tell these people to take us to Midchilda. Let's go."

"I…I don't…" Fate stammers. She does not understand what the girl is talking about. The eyes behind the little mask turn inquisitive.

"Sister? Are you alright? You don't look good. What happened to your mask?" the little one asks. 'Sister?' Fate is baffled.

"Yeah. Mama is going to be angry if she finds out. Besides, why are you dressed like that?" another masked girl, bit taller than the little one, chimes in.

Then it dawns on Fate. These girls are mistaking her for one of their own, which could mean only one thing. Fate starts to tremble. She takes her hands off of the engines and wraps them around her head. Breathing heavily she backs off.

"Oh, no, no."

.

The crew on the Bridge are going crazy.

"Captain, engines suppression stopped! Something has happened to Chief Enforcer!" the Senior Operator reports.

"We got momentum, we can make it through the gate in time!" the captain declares. The only remaining issue is getting Fate back to either the Bridge or the canteen. He turns to Zafira who is trying to raise his lieutenant on communication.

"3rd Platoon is not responding. Fate is most likely engaged herself!." He calls Alph. "Alph, be prepared to teleport any moment."

Griffith gets on the PA system.

"Chief Enforcer, get back to the Bridge now!" he shouts.

"Fuck!" Chrono runs out of the Bridge before anyone can stop him.

.

"Sister, what were you doing here?" asks the little masked girl, slowly approaching cowering Fate.

"Were you helping them? Did you make the ship go faster?"

Fate keeps backing off, avoiding eye contact. She is hyperventilating.

"No, no, no, this is impossible-"

"You were helping them, weren't you?" yells the little one. "Traitor!"

Fate has her back against a wall and cannot retreat any further. She starts crying.

"Noooo! Please! This can't be!"

The masked intruders have had enough. Their staffs transform into scythes with large curved blades glowing electric yellow. Upon seeing the familiar scythe in multiples, Fate collapses on her knees, cowering, her hands covering the head, screaming in absolute terror.

The little masked mage launches herself with the scythe ready to slice the traitor in half but is met with a strong magic attack that flew from the entryway. With a loud scream of pain, the little one falls dead. The others quickly turn around to face this new threat. Chrono is standing there with an outstretched arm.

"Get away from her!"

The remaining five mages dive on Chrono. It is evident although strong in ranged attacks, he is not proficient in close quarters fight. He dodges, evades, and manages to kill two more masked mages, but as the fight goes on the intruders are gaining upper hands. Spraying an offensive magic Chrono makes his way to his cowering sister and stands in front of her. The PA system is blaring Griffith's desperate voice.

"Chief Enforcer! To the Bridge! Right now!"

Chrono nudges his sister with a back foot.

"Fate, get up. Please! Get up! Fate!" But Fate remains on the floor cowering.

Another voice from the PA system starts the countdown.

"Vaizen gate in 20, 19, 18..."

The countdown continues, but Fate is still on the floor, crying, screaming. Chrono clenches his teeth.

"Shit…"

The three remaining intruders lunge at the siblings, but their scythes bounce off a thick greenish barrier that has suddenly appeared surrounding the Harlaowns. Yuuno shouts from the entryway.

"Guys, what the fuck are you doing! Ship's going to blow!"


	5. 5: Rough Day

From a slightly elevated ground outside the Naval Intelligence's Staging Dock in Vaizen, Subaru watches the huge dimensional gate wobbling and pulsating, biting her nails. Her battalion has pulled back and dug in about a kilometer away from the gate, armored vehicles dotted around squad positions.

With a heart-thumping 'whoomp' sound, Helios appears, shooting out of the gate at full speed.

"Battalion, get ready!" Subaru orders.

Helios explodes. The shock wave destroys the Naval Intelligence facility, sending a million pieces of burning debris to all directions.

The gate erupts in brilliant flames and smoke as Punchkid battalion pours heavy fire on it, but it remains open. Subaru cusses, glaring at the gate. She calls Zafira.

"Rapid Recon, report." No answer. "Rapid Recon, report!"

Suddenly Zafira's voice rushes through Rapid Response division's communication magic.

"Recon company reporting from the designated teleport beacon. Mission is a failure."

Subaru looks at the burning wreckage that moments ago was Helios.

"I repeat; mission failed. Objective is still on board Helios." Zafira reports with a grim tone. Subaru cusses again. The captain of the recon company continues.

"Wolfram is down, too."

Subaru is stunned at the news. A warship that big can tank a hideous amount of damage. What the hell is coming her way?

"Hayate-san used to command Wolfram…" Subaru remembers. "What about the Helios crew?"

"Helios crew are safe with us." Zafira reports. At least that is a relief albeit small. Subaru has arranged vehicles at the teleport beacon for this.

"They are yours. Escort the crew to Caledfwlch Factory. We've set up a quarantine area there. Shamal is setting up a hospital so leave the wounded there if any."

"Roger…and sorry…" Zafira trails off.

Subaru ends the comm and pulls her hair out, fuming with anger. She isn't mad at Zafira. If something powerful enough to take down Wolfram is in the way of his mission, there isn't much Zafira can do about it except getting the hell out of the way, salvaging what he can. That he did; he saved the Helios crew. Subaru is generally angry about the whole situation. Fate is presumed dead. News so impossible to believe Subaru does not know how to react to it. She glares at the still open gate, only to witness a hundred or so invaders swarming out.

Her battalion is now firing on the invaders, who immediately take covers behind the burning wreckage scattered around.

.

As soon as the first swarm of the invaders exits the gate they are met with a hail of ranged attacks. They soon discover their barriers are strong enough to mitigate quite a number of direct hits. Nevertheless, it is an unpleasant experience and unnecessary risk so they try dodging incoming attacks, taking covers.

"Where is the ship?" The person with a cracked mask asks.

A nearby sister points at the burning wreckage and is disintegrated by an attack that came from above. The person looks up and sees a group of gray-clad mages ascending, trailing long ribbon-like tails.

The person turns to Helios' wreckage again. There among burning debris and metallic rib cage is a child-like corpse burnt to crisp. Her chest heaves up and down as she starts breathing heavily.

She looks around. Her sisters are trying to push inland away from the gate; some to find better covers, some to find an enemy to slice open, some just moving about with no clue what to do. Many are hit by the incoming fire, but most of them survive unharmed thanks to their strong barriers. Some, though, are unlucky and are hit by a particularly strong attack or a coincidental focus fire, and either disintegrate or burn to death. More importantly, the attacks coming from the flying soldiers are deadly. Clearly, the flying ones are the strongest foes.

She looks again at the burnt corpse of the little one. She needs to kill the person who did this to her little sister. Somebody. Anybody. Preferably someone important. And preferably right now. She scans far ahead using optics magic and spots a uniformed female adult on a slightly raised hill behind the enemy front line. This particular person seems to be very angry about something, yelling at the men and women around her.

The person motions to nearby sisters to follow her. She takes a deep breath and launches herself at full speed. A couple of masked girls follow her.

.

She is about a hundred meters up in the air, speeding towards the intended target when a smudge of pink and gray zips past her. The person quickly turns around and finds the two sisters who followed her have turned into bits and pieces of bloody gore raining down on the burning Dock. The pink and gray smudge ascends high, then turns. It is a person. A flying soldier. Three other similarly clad flying soldiers join the first one. The four soldiers spot another group of sisters in the air and speed towards them, leaving the frustrated girl alone in the air. The person grits her teeth and resumes her flight.

.

Subaru surveys the battlefield. Whoever, or whatever these invaders are, they are not dying easily. A considerable amount of firepower has to be committed to killing just one. Subaru herself would have no problem fighting an invader one on one and deal a fatal blow, but the majority of the Bureau armed soldiers, save for the flight mages, are not as powerful as the Punchkid. Making do with what she has; that is her job as the commanding officer.

"Those bastards are tough nuts to crack. Why aren't they dying?" She turns to her staff. "Guys, let's see some focus firing. Tell the captains-"

"Major, look out!" somebody shouts, pointing at something behind Subaru.

Subaru quickly turns, sees an enemy about to cut her head off with a scythe, evades, jumps, and swats the person down by punching the masked face with all her might. The attacker falls flat on the ground, dead. The crack on the mask has finally yielded and the mask has been shattered, leaving only a clean-cut piece covering the top left of the face.

Subaru is mad. Not because she nearly lost her life, but the act was a foolish attempt. Whoever trained this soldier should be shot on the spot.

"What the hell were you thinking! Charging in alone like that! Where's your covering fire? Where're your buddies? Why throw your life away like this!"

She kicks the dead body in anger. Then she sees the very dead face revealed by the broken mask. A look of horror dawns on Subaru's own face.

"Holy shit, what the fuck have I done?"

**#**

.

Back in Midchilda, Hayate is sitting at her desk, talking to somebody over voice communication.

"-yeah, he can do that, didn't you know? Anyway glad to hear everyone is OK. Get to the factory, and let Shamal have a look."

She ends the comm, but another one comes in immediately. This time, a video call. Signum's pale face pops up.

"Commander, I have bad news."

Lieutenant general Yagami raises her eyebrows.

"What's wrong? You look like you are dying."

"I have a report from Subaru. There was friendly fire, and...she killed Fate." Signum's face has gone even paler.

Shocked Reinforce pops out next to Hayate's head.

"Wait, what?"

"Subaru did what?" Hayate is also confused.

Signum wipes the sweat off her forehead. Apparently, Fate was still on board Helios when it blew up. She survived somehow and found Subaru.

"But Subaru thought it was an enemy trying to kill her, and...Subaru killed Fate."

Hayate and Reinforce look at each other's faces. 'What is she saying?' Hayate, confused, turns back to Signum's face.

"Signum, what the hell are you talking about? Fate-chan is alive."

.

"What the hell are you talking about? Fate-san is dead. I have one dead Fate T. Harlaown in front of me, right here!" Subaru yells at Signum's hologram face floating in front of her.

"No, Subaru, you are mistaken. Fate is with her brother right now." Signum relays what she has heard from Hayate. Subaru cannot believe it.

"That's impossible!"

.

"That's impossible!" Hayate yells at Signum's hologram face floating in front of her.

.

"God damn it!" Signum shows her anger, which she does rarely. After hearing more detail she ends the communication with Hayate and immediately calls Subaru again.

"Listen, Subaru. Princess says she was in a direct comm with Chrono just before I called her. Apparently, Professor Ferret Boy teleported all of them out, and that's including Fate." Signum explains.

"Yeah, sure, she got out. OK. But then she came to me, and I punched her to death. Does anyone care how terrible I feel right now?" Subaru is sobbing, distressed.

For a moment Signum is confused again. 'Did Subaru really do it?' She shakes her head to focus.

"No offense, Subaru, but do you seriously think you could one punch kill Fate?"

The sobbing on the other end of the comm stops. Subaru is thinking.

"Maybe if I tried really really hard...I might-"

"That's not the bloody point!" Signum has had enough. "Chrono is literally carrying Fate in his arms right now! They are on their way to the Factory as we speak, do you get it?"

"But-"

Signum cuts Subaru off. This is getting ridiculous and there is a war to fight.

"You know what? I'm gonna have to pull the rank on this one." Says Signum. If their top boss AND deputy director of Naval Intelligence insist Fate is alive, Fate is alive.

"Now get back to the war!"

After a brief hesitation, Subaru acknowledges reluctantly.

"…and Subaru? Keep that body safe…just in case." Signum immediately regrets adding that sentence. Now Subaru is going to be confused again.

**#**

.

Nanoha is circling high in the air, leading her 1st Squadron of sixteen flight mages dispersed in four flights of four.

Ever since Helios exploded she has been calling Punchkid and the division repeatedly, demanding to know what happened to Fate, but nobody has given her a definitive reply nor put in the efforts to get back to her on the topic. She is anxious and on the verge of breaking down, but tries to suppress it by focusing on the job. Her squadron, however, can sense their leader is mad.

She is wearing the modern issue standard flight combat uniform; gray-white insulated windbreaker half coat with a visored hood that automatically extends over the head from the nape, two long silk ribbon-like drag-reducing tails trailing behind from the waist, worn over plain insulation pants and solid boots. Nanoha does prefer her old trusted barrier jacket, but the Wing Command is not having it.

"I'm not having my ace flight mage stick out like a sore thumb." said the commander, and that was it. Nanoha is stuck with the new uniform. Besides, the pockets are sort of useful storing snacks for long flight missions.

By using optics magic, Nanoha observes the battle taking place far below: the invaders are trying to advance towards the dug in Rapid Response soldiers. Although they could withstand considerable beatings they seem not so eager to take hits in the first place. Hence the advance is slowed down, as those who ventured into open are met with hails of ranged attacks and are quickly forced back to take cover behind the wrecks and debris of the explosion. Those who somehow reach a Rapid Response's position manage to cut down several soldiers before disintegrating under intense focus fire by the defenders.

The flight mages of Vaizen Air are making it worse for the invaders, as they provide low altitude air support, making strafe runs again and again.

Subaru's voice reaches everyone on the battlefield.

"All units, be advised; observation indicates the enemy is strictly melee only. Exploit accordingly. You have my permission to give ground."

Nanoha watches the foremost platoon mount on their armored vehicles, pulling back to put some distance. Its sister platoons also adjust their positions. The Vaizen flight mages rain down fires to discourage the enemies from filling the gap left behind too quickly.

The invaders finally have had enough of the attacks coming from above. A dozen rises up and tries to engage the Vaizen flight mages, who quickly evade and fly high up, with the masked mages in pursuit. Nanoha leads her squadron and dives to intercept, firing volleys. The invaders in the air shift their attention to this new immediate threat, changing their course towards Midchilda's squadron. The Vaizen flight mages descend back to their anti-ground missions.

.

Observing the battle from her command post, Subaru, having calmed herself down after the Fate-incident, shakes her head.

"This isn't an army, it's a mob. What a mess."

"But they aren't dying either." Her assistant, a young lieutenant gentleman, points out. Subaru nods to this fact. It looks like Punchkid will run out of steam before the invaders run out of bodies. Her thought is interrupted by a call from Signum.

"Punchkid, Sail Force says more enemies arriving in an hour or so. I'd like you to pull back before you get overrun."

Subaru gestures to her assistant to relay the message.

.

Up in the air, Nanoha is yet again engaged in a dogfight against another group of airborne hostiles when the message from Punchkid comes.

"Punchkid to White Devil, we will be peeling back shortly." The voice of Subaru's assistant rings as if he is talking from right next to Nanoha. "Would appreciate you join Vaizen people and cover our back."

Nanoha chases and lands a hit on an enemy mage who explodes to bloody mist. Irritated, she responds.

"Oh, for the love of-"

She parries a swing by an enemy, who closed in too fast for Nanoha's comfort and kicks the masked person off to aside. Her wingman finishes off the disorientated attacker.

"White WING!" Nanoha emphasizes. "White Wing will come down as soon as we clear the air."

"Roger, White Devil." The rude man ends the call.

Annoyed, Nanoha maneuvers and shoots an enemy from behind.

**#**

.

Professor Scrya and Deputy Director Harlaown, carrying his sister in his arms, arrive at Caledfwlch Factory in a pickup truck they have appropriated. Zafira and Alph have been waiting, the latter rushes and takes unconscious Fate from Chrono's arms.

"I really thought we lost you." Zafira admits, relieved. Alph wipes the sweat off Fate's face, worried.

"What's wrong with her? Is she hurt?"

Chrono shakes his head.

"I don't know. I found her like this. Where is Shamal?"

Zafira informs Shamal is inside the main office building, which has been turned into a makeshift field hospital. As he speaks the first batch of ambulances starts to arrive, carrying the wounded and dead soldiers from the Staging Dock. Yuuno turns pale at the sight of the bloody cuts and chops and severed limbs.

"Let's go." Chrono proceeds to lead Alph into the building, but Zafira stops him.

"Sorry, not you two." He motions to Chrono and Yuuno. "Professor, Deputy Director, you know the drill. Quarantine area is that way." He points to a sealed hangar across the parking lot. "Helios crew is already there, too."

"Fine." Chrono drags reluctant Yuuno towards the hangar. "Just tell Shamal to keep me posted, alright?"

Zafira watches the two walk across the parking lot to process themselves into the quarantine hangar. Alph carries unconscious Fate into the building, whispering soothing voices to her old friend.

Zafira makes a call to the division HQ. Agito's small face appears in front of him.

"Agito, We've just received Fate at Caledfwlch. Shamal is going to have a look. Can you fill me in what's happening? Where do you want us?"

Agito looks relieved to hear the news. The little fairy girl welcomes back Zafira.

"Punchkid is pulling back, but Subaru wants you behind the line. Talk to her ASAP."

"OK, I will." Zafira nods. "Where is Vita?" he adds the question. According to Agito, Vita's Anvil battalion has just finished assembling at a Sail Force dock in Midchilda.

"But the Staging Dock going kaboom brought down the teleportation network in the entire east coast area." Agito informs. "Vita will have to go through Vaizen's Interworld Terminal."

.

Back in Midchilda, Reinforce floats over Hayate's desk and gets in the commander's face.

"Agito says Zafira dropped off the Helios crew at Caledfwlch. All three VIPs are received safely."

"Thank god. So fate is indeed alive." Says Hayate, relived. She leans back to put some distance between Reinforce and her face. "Anything else?"

Reinforce hovers closer.

"She's unconscious for some reason. Shamal is going to have a look…and Agito says Signum wants to know why you started smoking again?" Reinforce slips in a question. Before Hayate can say anything she is interrupted by a video call from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Hayate shoos Reinforce away from her face and salutes the Chairwoman of the JCS.

"Madam Chairwoman, I am happy to report that both your kids are safe." She feels warm in heart seeing the worried mother's face brightening up. She continues.

"Another good news is Signum is holding up pretty good in Vaizen. Things aren't looking too bad, madam."

Lindy nods in approval.

"Good to hear, indeed." She flashes a smile and holds up a letter-sized document. "I have good news for you, too, lieutenant general, I've just received a document from the Management. You are now officially appointed as the Joint Task Force Command tasked to repel the invasion."

Hayate is puzzled. That big of a position is usually not for a three-star general. She points it out.

"Due to current circumstances we do with what we have, and that's you. You will receive the official doc later." Lindy beams a smile again. "And who knows? Maybe one more star to go with the job."

Hayate salutes the face floating in front of her.

"Thank you, madam, I accept the position. I won't disappoint you."

"Good. Oh, and I hear you started smoking again? Just...don't. OK? It's bad for libido."

.

Lindy ends the call. Reinforce gets in Hayate's face again.

"Four stars, eh?"

"Maybe. She said maybe." Hayate dismisses the idea. "Besides, I'm too young for that." But Reinforce is insistent. If Hayate is the youngest ever to reach a three-star rank, it is inevitable she eventually becomes the youngest ever four-star general, too.

"Come on, Hayate. They will have to add you a star pretty soon...otherwise, things get uncomfortable across the ranks."

Hayate puts her hands on her waist.

"Hey, why does everyone know I'm smoking again?"

Reinforce floats away from Hayate.

"I don't know what you are talking about." The miniature admin of Book of Darkness feigns innocent.

"Never mind." Hayate shakes her head. "Here's my first order; cut off all civilian network between Vaizen and Midchilda. Secure the military channels."

Reinforce nods. It is understandable Hayate is worried about the enemy probing and working up the network to the Capital. That would be a disaster. She silently relays the order to the relevant people.

"We probably add some circular dependencies or roundabouts or something in our channel-" Reinforce thinks aloud.

With an exaggerated motion, Hayate puts a cigarette between her lips. She defiantly lights it.

"Bad for libido?" She scoffs, but then quickly becomes depressed.

**#**

.

Just outside the Staging Dock is a small circular town built by Sail Force to serve as the home for the dock workers. A large road from the dock runs out the main gate and over the green field for a couple of kilometers then the town's boundary starts. Neat double story houses line up along the small streets branching out of the main one running through the town. There is a large plaza with a fountain in the center, with shops and restaurants and the town's public services surrounding it. The town is, of course, deserted. The dockworkers were among the first ones to be evacuated.

Subaru stands in front of the fountain with her assistant by her side, watching the play of the water. The sun is setting and the redness of the dusk sky eerily reflects on the bubbling water. Her battalion has retreated and is taking defensive positions in the town.

"We dig in here for now, but when things get too hot I expect an order to retreat to that hill far back."

She points at a high hill about five kilometers inland, overlooking the town and the roads running on a rather flat plain.

She surveys the empty plaza.

"This could be a good choke if we set up in the buildings."

"Against normal opponents, yes." The assistant sighs. Subaru agrees. Whoever they are, the invaders are very difficult to kill, requiring more than a dozen direct hits from the standard-issue Strike Rifle to down a single enemy. So it is not surprising the bulk of the confirmed kills earlier that day has come from the vehicle-mounted weapons and the flight mages. Subaru is sure her indirect fires would also cause havoc, but back at the Staging Dock, the enemy was too close to her own soldiers for her to lob artillery rounds. Shelling the town is also not an option as she has received a strict order to minimize damages on private properties.

She glances back at the hill again. There, she can make her stand. The enemy being strictly melee only also works in her favor. Punchkid can decimate the invaders before they even reach the foot of the hill. But that's then. For now, she has to delay the enemy advance as best as she can. Stalling here in the residential area will buy the Bureau precious hours. Maybe even a day, if things work out in Subaru's favor.

"Punchkid, Recon is in position." Zafira's voice whispers out from the communication device. Subaru has asked Zafira to stay behind and keep his eyes on the enemy.

.

Zafira and his men have spread out and are hiding in collapsed buildings around the edge of the dock, watching the invaders. The masked people have not ventured out of the facility, but are now resting leaning onto debris and wreckages. Occasionally one or two would rise into the air to challenge Vaizen's flight mages, but they are instantly dealt with by Midchilda's Squadron.

The larger horde starts to arrive, trickling onto the ruined Dock.

.

From the air, Nanoha spots the signs of exhaustion among her Vaizen counterparts. They have been diving on ground targets all day long.

"White Devil, we are running out of fume. We'd like to head back for now. You coming?" The Vaizen group leader asks over comm. Going by the call sign 'Bug Boy' he is a man of late 30s with a cynic voice. For a flight mage his everything, from his appearance to magical talents, is so ordinary one wonders how he even became the group leader. Nanoha met him a couple of times in the past, mainly during joint exercises and various ceremonies, and precisely because the man is so ordinary she has developed deep respect towards him. Bug Boy has gotten to his position, not because of his talents nor brilliance, but simply by giving his all at whatever he does, and eventually succeeding; a hard-working man who produces the results every time.

The White Devil stops for a moment and surveys her squadron. They look tired but not to the point where they would drop dead immediately.

"Bug Boy, you go ahead. White WING! will stay around a bit." She announces over the comm, much to the dismay of her flight mages. But then again, they loved Nanoha for that demanding side of her because 'I can keep up with the White Devil' is good for self-esteem.

"Roger that, White Devil. Don't hang around for too long." Says the Vaizen leader. Nanoha shakes her head and watches the Vaizen flight mages heading inland. She turns her attention to the ground. Thousands of invaders are flooding out of the gate.

.

The newly arrived batch of masked mages is looking around, moving along making space for the still arriving sisters. After talking to the first group who fought the battle a number of seniors gather around to discuss what to do next.

"Where is the ship?" a senior who arrived with the later group asks. Another one answers, gesturing towards the burning surroundings.

"I don't know. When we arrived, everything was burning. I think the ship was destroyed."

"Sisters, what are we to do? If the ship is not here, we've failed mother." A third senior mage chimes in. The first one surveys the world. Yes, they have failed to secure the ship, but this must be a Bureau world.

"Isn't that a half success?" she looks to the others. "Is this Midchilda?"

The other girls shrug. Nobody knows where they are. The second senior shakes her head.

"I don't know...we've been fighting ever since we arrived."

"How was it? Are they strong? Have we lost sisters?" asks the third mage. The second one nods. They have lost quite a few sisters.

"But with all of us together we can break through." She points to the sky. "But watch out for the flying ones. They are strong."

The first senior girl looks up. She spots Midchilda's squadron at high altitude in the evening sky. She calls out to nearby girls and together they rise up.

.

Nanoha sees a group of five enemies flying towards her.

"Let's see how high they can go."

Her squadron follows Nanoha, ascending diagonally at high speed. The invaders follow up. Upon reaching the altitude where lesser flight mages would start to struggle, Nanoha turns her head to check the invaders. She is impressed to find them keeping up.

"Not bad. Now, let's check their speed."

After waiting a bit to allow the invaders to close the distance, 1st squadron dives. The masked mages follow the suit, diving, and still manage to keep up.

Nanoha levels at a few meters above the ground, manages to shoot and hit several enemies while at it, and sharply turns upward, her squadron following closely, dispensing deadly spells as they make the turn.

The senior mage leading the group is furious at the sight of her sisters on the ground dying. She singles out Nanoha.

"That one! Focus on that person!"

The group ascends in pursuit of Nanoha, who turns her head to see the small group of invaders still on her tail. She waves a hand, and a flight of four detaches itself from the squadron formation and makes a wide arc around the incoming masked people. Nanoha turns around, flying backward at a reduced speed, observing how the invaders would handle the situation. They keep flying straight towards her.

"No, no, no. One of you should intercept the flanking course." She is disappointed. The flight she dispatched is now behind the invaders, who do not seem to mind the situation at all. Nanoha shakes her head.

"2nd flight, abort. I'll deal with this myself. All flights, disperse."

Her people know what she means. They hurry away from their group leader. Still flying backward, Nanoha summons a magic circle facing the incoming enemies. She stops suddenly and swings her device Raising Heart, now in a staff form, sideway with all her might, slamming the magic circle. The circle emits a massive beam of energy glowing in blinding pink and crimson, which instantly melts the airborne invaders. This angers the sisters down on the ground. About a hundred or so rises in the air to avenge the fallen sisters.

Nanoha is about to lead her squadron against the swarm when Agito's voice enters the communication channel.

"Rapid Response to White Devil. We see you too far forward. We'd like you to fall back and stay above Punchkid, if possible."

Nanoha stops midair. She surveys her squadron once again; their eyes are eager to retreat and fly above the friendlies. Finally, Nanoha gives in. She leads the squadron out of the Staging Dock.

.

The invaders cheer at the sight of the Bureau flight mages 'running away.' The senior girls are congratulating each other for a job well done when a small girl runs up to them.

"There are houses outside the fence, not far from here."

"The word is town. It's a town." The second senior mage thanks the little one. "Thank you for scouting ahead." She turns to other seniors.

"Sisters, if we take that town we will have places to rest and sleep for tonight."

Another senior offers to take the job.

"You girls must be tired. Stay here and rest with the sisters who came first."

The senior girls summon magical ears and shout instructions into them. The first arrived hundred or so girls will stay at the gate and have well-deserved rest. The two thousand who came later will go take the town.

**#**

.

"Punchkid to all units; Recon reports a large group of enemies moving out of the compound. Keep them at range, give ground if needed."

Subaru announces over the comm. She turns to her assistant, pointing at the distant hill inland.

"Let's move 3rd company there and start digging in. I want cover from the high ground when we do eventually retreat."

From the fountain plaza, Subaru watches the tactical feeds from her men at the edge of the town.

.

A soldier crouches in a hole he has dug on the front yard of a house at the eastern edge of the town. His buddy has gone into the house to refill their water bottles and also to check on the squadmates who are manning the windows. His squad's armored personnel carrier is perched behind the nice two-story house, peeking out onto the street slightly so that its mounted gun can fire at the hostiles coming from the open field laying before the town. Its barrel smoothly moves up and down, left and right, as the gunner makes sure everything works.

The soldier is fondling a small ribbon hairpin in his hand. A gift from his little girl back home, wishing his safe return. He's found it calms his nerves. On the communication channel the squad leader, who has dug in on the driveway of the house across the street, is saying something about syncing their shots on the same target.

His buddy comes back with the bottles fully filled.

"Hey, guys are saying our major killed Chief Enforcer." The buddy relays the gossip he has heard.

"What the fuck? How the-"

He is interrupted by a sudden pressure wave hitting them from above. The two soldiers look up. It's the Midchilda Air's 1st squadron, flying low eastward, their long drag-reducing ribbons trailing behind like tails. The two soldiers follow the formation with their eyes; across the sky is dotted with many tiny specs of airborne invaders. The dots grow bigger as the masked mages close in on the town fast. Below is a patch of writhing blackness flowing on the flatland.

"Here they come." The soldier says to no one in particular. About fifteen, or maybe twenty minutes before the horde reaches the town on foot. He counts his mana cartridges but is interrupted by his buddy nudging him with an elbow.

"Look. White Devil is about to-"

The soldier quickly searches for the tiny dots in the distant sky. The Midchilda mages are hurling deadly magics across the air. The dusk sky lights up with a spectacular fireworks display. Illuminated from behind, several groups of the invaders fly low straight towards the town, ignoring the White Devil and co. The soldier and his buddy hear the anti-air weapons scattered around the town going full power; 'Brrrt!' 'Brrrt!' Unending streams of explosion magic fill the air in an attempt to intercept the incoming airborne hostiles. The two soldiers cheer at the sight of several enemies exploding midair, but the mysterious masked people press on. They scatter and crash land in small groups, diving below the silhouette of the houses. The soldier and his buddy wince as they hear the sounds of the mounted weapons firing. Several units across the town are having uninvited guests.

.

The masked girls advance towards the town. The sun is setting behind the nice-looking houses, casting long shadows.

"Sisters!" a senior girl shouts. The girls draw their staffs, transforming them to scythes or blades glowing electric yellow. The senior masked mage waves her blade, and they start to charge towards the town, screaming.

From the shadows of the houses thick lines of glowing magic shoot out in pulses, 'Vtoom!' 'Vtoom!' 'Vtoom!', flying over the flat grassland. The first rows of the invaders are hit hard, many of them instantly losing their barriers. The edge of the town suddenly erupts in sporadic flashes of small bright lights as the soldiers start firing their Strike Rifles.

But it does not end there. The girls hear whistling sounds, then all of sudden the field is blanketed with explosions, hurling dirt and torn limbs up into the air. The girls immediately throw themselves to the ground, shocked. Back home, they have seen deaths. Sisters falling to illness. Sisters dying in rock blasting accidents. But never deaths in such gruesome fashion, nor in such numbers. They panic.

.

"Keep moving, god damn it. You are sitting ducks staying put like that." Subaru shakes her head, watching the feeds from the edge of the town. "Keep moving for god's sake!"

"Major, are you on their side?" asks the assistant. Subaru blinks a couple of times then realizes what she is doing; rooting for the enemy.

"Sorry…it's just-" she points at a floating holo-display, disappointed. "This isn't right."

.

"Keep going! We can't do anything here laying low!" A senior masked girl shouts to her sisters. She stands up and, hunching low, charges forward. A Strike Rifle fire glances off her barrier, but she keeps going. Others start to follow, moral renewed. When they reach about 300m from the first houses at the edge of the town the small arms fires coming from the windows and yards intensify, pelting the girls' barriers. The outermost house is really throwing everything they got, assisted by an armored vehicle peeking out from behind a corner.

The senior mage stops and thinks for a moment, catching her breath. She motions for the girls to keep going, but takes a group of a hundred or so girls and cuts across the field, trying to swing around and hit the town from the south.

.

"White Wing to Punchkid. I see a group of enemies going around to your south." Nanoha reports from the air. Her squadron is focusing on the airborne targets, staying well above the firing arc of the battalion's light cannon platoon.

"Thank you, White Devil. 2nd company is aware of the movement on their flank."

.

The soldier in the front yard gets a call from his squad leader. They are moving to another position. He and his buddy hear their personnel carrier revving its engine, getting ready to go.

"They are wrapping around to our south." The squad leader shouts, running across the road from the house on the other side.

"LT has given us a new position. Let's go!" The leader taps on the soldier's helmet as he passes. The rest of the squad pours out of the house onto the front yard.

As they start to get in the vehicle, his buddy shouts something, aims to south, and shoots. The soldier can see small hunched figures running across the open field in the distance. The vehicle-mounted gun starts firing in that general direction as the squad members get in. Other units placed along the road have also joined in the shooting.

.

The senior mage kneels and watches the shots coming in. These are the powerful ones that hurt, not the small stings. The stream of deadly magic arcs as the source starts moving.

"Looks like they are moving."

She can picture it in her head. The Bureau soldiers are pulling back a little bit in order to better deal with her coming from the south. At least some progress is being made in terms of grounds gained. She summons a set of magical ears and tells the girls on the main axis of advance to keep pressing forward. Then she stands up, rushes forward, but is hit hard and knocked backward to the ground. She groans in pain but is unhurt. A nearby girl rushes and kneels beside the senior mage.

"Are you alright?"

The senior one grunts with a grimace under her mask. She feels suddenly so tired. It has been a rough day following a long flight in the freezing cold. She shakes her head. Lying on her back her eyes scan the sky, trying to find something to focus on. Her sisters in the air are chasing the Bureau flight mages who are ever so elusive in their maneuvers. They split up and encircle her sisters before finishing off from a distance. Despite having the upper hand in speed, the girls cannot do anything unless within arms reach. And the Bureau soldiers are exploiting the fact they can engage her sisters from afar. Frustrated, she rolls over to a prone position. A shot flies above her and knocks down a sister not too far behind.

"Maybe if I imagine throwing rock blasting magic-" she mumbles. Determined, she gets on her knees and swings her staff. The pole-arm like staff emits a small javelin of golden light, about the length of her arm, which screams across the field and hits a house's upper floor wall. Upon contact, the magical discharge detonates, collapsing that part of the building's upper floor.

"Whoa!" Her sisters look at her in awe.

.

"Whoa!" Nanoha stops midair. She and her squadron look down at the rubble that has once been someone's bedroom. A loud cheer from the invaders erupts that can be heard even from the sky. From the air Nanoha sees numerous small magical mouths appear among the masked people on the field. Even the ones in the air have gathered around in several groups, listening to small blabbering mouths. Then a wave of motion ripples across the ranks of the invaders on the field; staffs and blades and scythes are pointing at her.

"Ascend! Evasive maneuvers!" Nanoha screams into the comm. The squadron clears the area just in time as the air erupts in flames and explosions.

.

Subaru turns to her assistant.

"That explosion!" She demands to know. "It didn't sound like ours. What the hell was-"

Subaru follows the eyes of the assistant to the sky. The flight mages in the sky across the town are being shot at from below; countless streams of golden sparkles hosing the sky.

"White Devil to Punchkid! I'm seeing ranged attacks. They are NOT melee only!" Nanoha's voice booms out of the comm. "White Wing. God damn it. Did I say Devil?" she adds.

More explosion sounds come from the edge of the town, drowning the sounds of Subaru's own battalion's guns.

.

The collapsed roof has fallen onto the soldier's armored vehicle, making loud enough dings to scare the soldiers sitting inside. A shot from the south reflects off the armor and hits a nearby garage, demolishing it. The squad leader screams something to the driver. With a jolt, the personnel carrier starts moving again, its gun still firing.

"We are pulling back." The squad leader relays the order from his boss. "We screen south while 1st company falls back." He shows his tactical display. A map of the town. Dots are slowly moving out of the edge, towards the central plaza and the main road. The squad does not fail to notice they are the southernmost unit of the entire battalion.

.

The senior mage girl leads her group into the southern part of the town. From the intense sound of battle happening on the eastern side, she determines her sisters there, too, have entered the town. Her group spills onto the otherwise quiet suburban area and is immediately met with a stream of heavy fires coming from a vehicle peeking out from behind a house about a hundred meters down the street. She sees a small group of men has taken cover around the vehicle.

.

"We are too close! Too close!" The soldier shouts, banging on the armor plate. The squad leader screams into his comm and gets the permission to give ground from his lieutenant. The driver revs up the engine once again as the squad gets inside. With a jolt, the armored personnel carrier starts moving. Its mounted gun keeps firing and the first row of the masked invaders drop to the ground. The rest takes covers and starts hurling deadly magic across the air.

The squad vehicle is about to make a sharp turn when a rear wheel is hit. The resulting explosion flips the heavy chunk of metal upside down careening across the street.

The squad groans and cusses as they regain senses after the ordeal. The soldier and his buddy push open the back hatch and climb out, coughing and limping. They take cover and start firing at the enemy not too far away. Meanwhile, the rest of the squad climbs out of the vehicle. They are dragging out the screaming gunner, whose right leg is bent in an unnatural way. The squad leader barks an order and a soldier quickly pulls out a foldable stretcher from his backpack.

"One, two, three!" They lift up the injured gunner and lay him down on the stretcher.

"Go, go!" The soldier shouts, firing at the invaders few houses down the street together with his buddy. His squadmates, carrying the stretcher, jog westward as fast as they can.

The soldier feels a tap on his helmet. It's his buddy.

"It's time for us to go, too!"

Hunched low, they start to walk backward, hosing down the street with their Strike Rifles. The invaders keep pressing forward, hurling their explosion magic. A stray shot lands on the vulnerable underbelly of the flipped personnel carrier, and the vehicle explodes, the blast knocking back the soldier and his buddy.

Lying on the ground, breathing heavily, the soldier tries to shake off the ringing in his head. His noses and ears are bleeding and the world is spinning around. He tries to stand up, but he can't move the lower part of his body and there is a burning pain in his chest. He looks down only to find a large piece of the metallic fragment that has pierced into his chest. Defeated, he coughs blood and gives up trying to stand up. He looks sideways and sees his buddy on the ground, bleeding badly, but still conscious.

The masked invaders are closing in fast. Lying on their backs the two soldiers on the ground raise their rifles and begin firing, but the enemy barriers are too thick.

"Hey!" His buddy shouts.

"Yeah?"

"Remember? Sarge said we should sync our shots."

The soldier chuckles, coughing up more blood.

"Oh, yeah."

They see a little person running up to them.

"That one!" The soldier calls out. He and his buddy focus on the little masked person who leaps into the air with a large blade glowing yellow. The two men empty their cartridges on the little one. The barrier finally shatters and the small body is riddled with holes, spraying blood. The little one does not finish the attack. With a thud, her dead body falls down right between the two men.

"Good shot." The soldier turns the head to congratulate his friend. His buddy is motionless, face pale, finger still squeezing the trigger; dead.

"Fuck." He cusses and stares at the sky where the flight mages draw fast lines as they trail colorful mana residues behind their ribbon tails. He sticks his hand inside his jacket and pulls out a small item. It's the polka dot ribbon hairpin, red with white dots, that her little girl back home gave him before his departure. He fondles the ribbon, trying to calm himself down and prepare for the inevitable death.

.

"Sister!" The senior masked mage runs to and kneels over the dead body of the little girl. She sees the mangled body and loses all hope. She just takes the little girl into her arms and softly rocks back and forth, whispering something into the dead ears. She notices the dead eyes are still wide open behind the little mask, frozen in horror. The senior girl takes out a small tool from a side pocket on her overall and unscrews the bolts on the mask. When she has gently removed the mask from the face of the little dead girl and swipes her hand over the eyes to close them, she hears a loud gasp from her side. She turns to see the soldier, eyes wide, face distorted in self-loathing and inner pain.

"Oh god. Fuck, she was a little girl!" The man mutters, trembling. "What the fuck have I done!" he screams in agony and starts crying.

The senior masked mage does not say anything. She silently examines the bleeding soldier. A large piece of metal is sticking in his chest and dark blood pumps out as his heart beats; the man is going to die very soon.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The soldier begs to the dead girl, clawing closer despite his own injury. When he comes close, his shoulder almost touching the little one's, he holds the dead girl's hand.

"I'm sorry." He says again, sobbing. With a trembling hand, he gently caresses the little face and smooths the matted hair. Then he clips the small polka dot ribbon pin on the girl's head. The soldier sighs his last breath and dies still holding the hand of the dead girl.

The senior masked mage does not know what to feel about this. This man and her sisters were trying to kill each other just a minute ago, yet she feels no anger towards the man who killed her little sister. She does, however, feel the general sadness of the whole situation.

"Come on! Let's go!" Another sister taps on her shoulder before rushing off westward. The senior girl looks at the dead sister's face one last time, and without thinking takes the hairpin and puts it in her pocket. She stands up and runs off to join her sisters. From the eastern edge of the town, the sound of the battle moves towards the central plaza.

**#**

.

Subaru has relocated to the western edge of the town. She stands outside her command vehicle, watching the tactical feeds from the units under her command. So far Subaru is in good mood. Her troops are doing well and the casualties are minimum. She motions for her assistant to come over.

"2nd company is falling back from the south." She shows the holo-display. "Have 1st company hold here. 2nd runs straight to the hill."

"Understood, major." The assistant acknowledges and yells into his comm. Subaru proceeds to call Nanoha.

"White Devil, we are retreating, but we will be crossing about five kilometers of an open field."

"OK. We will cover you." Says Nanoha from the sky.

A call from the division HQ comes in. Agito relays the order for Punchkid to relocate to the hill exactly as Subaru has anticipated. Vaizen Air is also returning from their short rest upon Signum's request.

"That hill controls a rather important road junction and the surrounding flatlands, so we gotta give a bit more effort in holding it." Says Agito. Subaru turns to her assistant with a gleeful face and mouths 'See, I told you.'

.

The sun has already set, but the town is brightly lit by the continuous streams of offensive magic flying across the streets and into the air. The flashes and deafening sounds of explosions fill the town like a massive firework.

A group of armored vehicles passes through Subaru's position and quickly moves out onto the open field outside the town. 2nd company is making its way to the hill. The soldiers from 1st company have taken defensive positions at the western edge and are shooting into the town. From the hill far away, a flare signal goes up in the sky to guide the destination. The eerie light of the flare briefly illuminates the passing Vaizen Air mages flying out from inland.

**#**

.

Hayate paces around in her office, talking to Signum over the video comm while Reinforce watches silently.

"I'm all packed and ready since forever. When can I go?" Hayate demands.

Signum sighs and scowls.

"I told you; I'm not gonna have you come over until I have a solid defense line. I can't allow the possibility of your command post being overrun."

Hayate throws her hands up in defeat. She changes the topic to the situation at the Interworld Terminal.

"This place is packed with people trying to leave." Says Signum. She has gotten a large empty hangar in the Terminal complex for her to use as her division HQ. She has enough room to share so has generously set up a corner for the flight mages. Signum continues. "They are OK with me here, but the locals aren't very happy about a three-star Midchilda running the show in Vaizen."

Hayate turns sharply and snaps.

"Not my fault they didn't have their own rapid response, is it?" She sighs and goes on, annoyed. "I got a call from Vaizen Management. They want minimum destruction of properties."

Signum protests to this. It's the enemy who is blowing up the houses in Vaizen, not her. Speaking of which…

"Actually I was going to ask for a carpet run on the town-"

"Yeah…that's a no." Hayate shuts down the idea immediately.

Signum grimaces but accepts the constraints on her job.

"By the way, didn't you quit a long time ago? Why start again? It's bad for your growth." Says Signum nonchalantly.

Hayate glares at Reinforce, who suddenly finds the ceiling very interesting. The young commander of the Joint Task Force stomps on the carpeted floor.

"I'm already fully grown up!"

**#**

.

Subaru is a half foot in the vehicle for what feels like an eternity, watching her men and women of the remaining company gradually being pushed back out of the town. When the assistant delivers the news that 2nd company has reached the hill, she orders everyone to mount up and get the hell out.

As she and the rest of the battalion retreat in a quick yet orderly fashion across the open, Subaru pushes her head out the top hatch of her command vehicle to have a look behind. Midchilda's 1st squadron is on the anti-ground duty this time, weaving through the streams of shots coming up from below, erecting a wall of fire at the edge of the town. Vaizen Air squadron is engaged in a fierce air to air battle against the enemies who have come up in the sky to challenge the flight mages. Then something catches Subaru's eyes. A small group of soldiers is running out of the town, carrying and struggling with a stretcher. Subaru bangs on the vehicle's roof, shouting. Her assistant pokes his head and checks the soldiers left behind.

"Those are men from 2nd company." The assistant informs his boss.

"What? They should be on the hill!"

About a dozen invaders are in hot pursuit of the struggling soldiers. Without thinking, Subaru gets on the roof through the top hatch and jumps off.

"Major! God damn it!" The assistant gets back inside the vehicle, and soon it turns around to chase the commanding officer.

"Major, get back now!" The assistant screams into comm, but Subaru is too busy running. The invaders are closing on the soldier too fast. Gritting her teeth, she summons a half opaque fast-track on the field ahead, glowing transparent blue, about 2m wide and extending all the way to the struggling soldiers. She jumps on it and her boots transform into a set of high-speed skates. Subaru accelerates and zips towards her men like an angry locomotive.

.

The squad sees their battalion CO running their way, followed by her own command vehicle, and a bit behind it the entire 1st company that has turned around. They clench teeth and keep running.

Subaru makes it just in time to crash into a masked invader leaping on her men. The impact pulverizes the poor soul, but Subaru does not stop. She glides and pivots and round kicks another masked head which flies away leaving its body behind. The next one suffers a caved-in chest after being punched in the heart.

"Keep going!" She orders the squad from 2nd company. The gladly comply, but do not need to go far. The command vehicle comes to a full stop about thirty meters ahead and flings open its back hatch. The assistant is yelling the soldiers to get in, but his voice is drowned by the vehicle's mounted gun firing close range. The squad climbs in anyway and now the assistant is yelling at Subaru to get in.

Subaru quickly moves towards her vehicle, but an explosion knocks her down face first. The small group of masked invaders is not making it easier for her. They jump on the Punchkid face down on the ground with their blades ready to swing. Subaru tries to pull herself up when a strong hand grabs the back of her collar and pulls. She almost chokes but is bewildered at the sight of two masked mages careening across the field as if they have been hit by a car. Subaru feels the sensation of being lifted by the collar and the massive force of the forward momentum, but even before she has had time to realize what is happening to her, she is tossed forward at an incredible speed towards the open back hatch of her own command vehicle, like a bowling ball. Midair, Subaru spins around in her trajectory and she finally sees Nanoha. The White Devil herself has come down, scooped so low a mere meter above the ground, grabbed and threw Subaru like trash while passing by, and is ascending again. Subaru crashes into the compartment and lands hard on the soldiers inside. The injured soldier on the stretcher yelps in pain.

"Fuck, major! You broke my other leg!"

The command vehicle jolts into motion again. The soldiers close the back hatch just before the remaining invaders are blown to pieces by Nanoha's attack from above. With that, 1st company turns around and once again makes it towards the hill far ahead.

The assistant slams on Subaru's helmet with his fist, face pale.

"Major, don't you ever do that again! Please!"

"Sorry." Subaru apologizes. The man is furious.

"Without the commanding officer, the men are just a bunch of headless chickens. Please remember that!" says the assistant, letting Subaru digest that.

.

As her command vehicle runs across the field, Subaru once again pokes her head out the top hatch. She is relieved to see no more hostiles are in pursuit.

Subaru looks up to check how the flight mages are doing. She spots Nanoha diving, making a run just outside the town to discourage anyone from venturing out into the open. But something is wrong with the White Devil's wingman. Subaru can tell the flight mage is struggling to keep up with the leader as they ascend again.

**#**

.

Nanoha glances at her wingman.

"Stay focused! You are wobbling."

Her wingman nods and shakes his head, trying to focus.

"We are all tired, but hang in there." Having said that, Nanoha herself feels the fatigue of daylong combat. Initially, it was just a duck hunt where she and her flight mages just needed to keep the distance and shoot from afar. But then the enemy has started to throwing stuff that exploded. Thereafter the fact that the Bureau flights are considerably outnumbered started to play a significant role. So far they have managed the situation purely by their superior skills, experiences, and the teamwork, but they can do only so much against the enemy who outnumbers them overwhelmingly.

Nanoha swings around and surveys her squadron, who all look very tired. She checks below.

"Alright. Looks like they aren't going after Punchkid. Let's fall back a bit."

Her decision is met with a loud cheer from the squadron. She calls Bug Boy.

"Bug Boy, we are moving inland a bit."

"Roger, White Devil. We will be behind you." Comes the response from the Vaizen Air's group leader.

As soon as the comm ends, Nanoha senses another volley of deadly shots coming from below. She dodges instinctively. However, her wingman can't get out in time. A fraction of a second before the impact, he strengthens his barrier and shields his face with the arms. The hit produces an explosion that blows the barrier and his both arms off. Screaming in pain, the wingman falls.

Cussing, Nanoha dives and catches her wingman in her arms. She heads inland at high speed with the rest of her squadron following in formation.

"Argh, it hurts!" the man screams in pain, looking at the wriggling stumps where his arms used to be. Bloods splash out each time his heart beasts, spraying all over the White Devil's uniform.

"Hold on tight!" Nanoha orders through clenched teeth.

"That's not funny! I got no hands!" The man tries to joke in an attempt to distract himself from the pain but fails.

Two flight mages come close side by side with the group leader. They examine the man bleeding all over Nanoha, dressing the bloody stumps. One of them manages to inject a tranquilizer shot.

"He's gonna live, but we gotta take him to the hospital right now." One of them reports.

Midair, Nanoha hands over her wingman to the two mages.

"Take him out of here. Stay with him."

They take the man inland while Nanoha and the squadron turn around and take up a station in the sky above the hill. Vaizen Air joins them and they circle around; ready to fight again.

.

Subaru is on top of the hill, watching the open plain in the darkness of the early night. The soldiers are busy digging in.

"This isn't right. They should have pressed on."

"You rooting for them again, major?" says her assistant.

"But this is wrong." Subaru shakes her head. "They had us on the run. They have the initiative. Any sane commander would want this hill."

The assistant does not answer. The two soldiers just silently look at the faraway town smoking in darkness.

**#**

.

The masked girls are overjoyed by capturing the town. They go around the streets joyfully, exploring the still-standing houses, delighted at discovering beds and sofas, excited upon opening the fridges, fascinated by the clothes left in the closets. The town's plaza has instantly become everyone's favorite place; what with the stores and restaurants packed with things they have never seen. Series of cries of excitement echoes around the town.

Several senior sisters gather at the fountain, each munching on some foods and snacks they've found.

"I'd say today was a victory." Says a senior.

"Are we in Midchilda?" asks another girl. The others look at each other. Nobody knows.

"Let's rest for tonight, We call mother first thing in the morning about the time she wakes up. She will know for sure." A senior girl suggests. They hope mother would be pleased with their achievement today.

"You girls go ahead and rest." Says a senior masked mage with a red and white polka dot ribbon clipped on her head. "I will take some girls and change places with the sisters at the portal."

The others nod. One of them motions for Red Ribbon to wait a bit. She rushes to a nearby store and after a while comes out with a big box full of hams and bread.

"Take this to the sisters. I'm sure they are really hungry."

The red ribbon girl nods and smiles in appreciation and takes the box in her arms.

**#**

.

In her office, Hayate swivels in her expensive chair, talking to Signum over a video call. Reinforce is sleeping cuddled up on the large desk.

The enemy has stopped at the residential area built for the Dockworkers. Subaru has set herself up on a high hill about 5km inland from the town across rather flat terrain. After all the fighting throughout the day, the night is relatively calm and peaceful.

"We have some casualties, but it's manageable." Reports Signum. "Overall, although Sail Force lost two ships today, we've managed to contain the invaders without giving too much ground."

Hayate smiles.

"Well done. Truly well done, Signum." She is pleased.

"I'd still like to have Nanoha carpet bomb the town tonight, but I guess that's a no?" Signum asks sheepishly, already knowing the answer. Hayate feels almost sorry to disappoint Signum, but she shakes her head.

"Sorry, no. No carpet bombing the town." She lights up a bit and adds. "But Vita will be there tomorrow. And the Raptors… Things are looking up for you."

With that said, Hayate sits up and stops swiveling. She pokes and wakes up Reinforce.

"OK, here's my order. Our enemy has willingly given up the initiative." Hayate delivers her wish in a firm tone. "I want to exploit this. I want to dictate the rest of the war to my liking."

Signum knows what's coming.

"Prepare an attack."

Signum raises an eyebrow.

"That will be my Vita and Subaru plus the Raptors, which gives me three battalions. You want me to attack with these?" It is a legitimate concern.

Hayate pulls out several reports onto the holo-displays floating on the desk.

"All the reports I received today indicate we are dealing with an amateur." She looks at Signum's hologram face for an agreement. The face nods. Hayate continues. "Go teach the noob punks they shouldn't fuck with me."

Reinforce gasps and quickly looks at Signum's face. The leader of the Wolkenritters scowls, hands on her waist.

"Language, Hayate! Language! What's wrong with you recently? Smoking and swearing...It's like you are back to being a teenager."

"I've always been seventeen." Hayate shrugs.

"And a virg-" Reinforce gets a smack on the head.

.

They end the comm. Signum will come up with an offensive plan by the morning. Reinforce logs the order in silence while Hayate leans back and swivels her chair again. Her peace is interrupted by a private call coming in. It's Teana.

"Finally I got through!" Teana is excited. She has been calling Commander of the Joint Task Force all day, but given the position and the current task at hand, Hayate has been extremely difficult to reach through private channels.

"Could you help me get to Vaizen?" Teana begs, her hologram face mouthing 'pretty please'.

"Vaizen? Why? It's a war zone." Hayate asks. She keeps swiveling. "Military traffic only."

"But my boss is there…or is she?" Come to think of it, Teana still doesn't know. "Has she come back?"

Hayate stops swiveling. She takes out a cigarette from her pouch and puts it between her lips.

"Oh, she's alright. She made it back."

"Great! Excellent!" Teana sees Hayate lighting it up. "Are you smoking again? Come on, it's bad for your skin."

Hayate doesn't answer but blows smoke to Teana's floating face. The Enforcer grimaces as if she can smell it.

"Anyway…so…could you authorize me going to Vaizen?" asks Teana.

"Nope." Hayate ends the call.

**#**

.

Nanoha's squadron flies westward across the pitch-black sky. She spots down below a well-lit complex that is Caledfwlch factory. She gestures to the squadron to go ahead.

"You guys get some rest. I have some people down here I'd like to check on." Nanoha detaches herself from the squadron. "Call me when something is up."

She waves to the squadron and descends onto the facility. Despite the late hour, there are a lot of activities going on. Groups of Raptor combat droids are walking out of a storage depot to assemble in rows and columns outside the factory gate. Cargo carriers are unloading equipment and supplies to be carried into the large office building. Ambulances from the front line unload wounded soldiers; Subaru's men and women, who are then carried into the office building, which now acts as the field hospital.

All-day she has begged and threatened and cursed in the Rapid Response's division channel for the news about Fate. Finally, somebody was fed up with it and told her Chief Enforcer is at Shamal's hospital.

Nanoha follows a wounded soldier being carried inside and finds the spacious lobby has turned into a makeshift emergency room filled with groaning soldiers and running nurses. She wades through, going from patient to patient, looking for someone, when a hand grabs her elbow from behind. She turns around to find a tall blonde woman in a white doctor's coat. It's Capital Defense's in-house surgeon Shamal, one of the four Wolkenritters serving Princess. Her eyes quickly run up and down the blood-smeared flight mage.

"Nanoha, are you hurt?"

"No? I'm fine?" Nanoha looks slightly confused, but in general, her eyes are rather blank. She looks around. "Hey, Shamal, I heard Fate-chan is here?"

"Fate? Oh, yes, she's here." Shamal answers. She runs her hand down on Nanoha's body, trying to verify the blood indeed is not Nanoha's. Satisfied, Shamal looks up again. "Up on the fifth floor; QA Director's office."

"Is she alright?" Nanoha asks, honestly concerned.

Shamal pulls out a chart and points at numbers and graphs.

"As far as her physical health is concerned she's alright, you see here...and here. Ah, ignore this spike -" The doctor realizes she's not talking to a medically trained person. She puts the chart away. "I think she's exhausted which is to be expected, but…she's been sleeping ever since."

"Is something wrong with her?"

Shamal pouts a bit.

"I don't know what happened, but I suspect it's something psychological. A mental shock, perhaps? Trauma? I'm not sure." She blinks a couple of times in search of a definitive diagnosis. "But I can tell she's having some kind of a nightmare. A very long one." Shamal adds.

A nurse calls out for Shamal. The doctor apologetically gestures she has to go. Nanoha thanks the doctor.

"Thanks, Shamal. Where are Yuuno and Chrono?"

"They are in the quarantine hangar, across the parking lot...hey, are you sure you are OK? You look terrible." Asks Shamal, running her eyes once again all over Nanoha, trying to find if something is wrong. The nurse calls again. Shamal reluctantly walks away, taking backward steps. She points at a hallway.

"There's a canteen down that way. Eat something!"

Nanoha waves goodbye to the busy doctor.

.

Nanoha wades through the beds and nurses and finds her wingman who is asleep under heavy medication. His arm stumps and torso are bandaged. The two flight mages who brought the man in are also sleeping perched on small portable stools next to the bed, leaning onto each other. She checks her wingman's chart, but can't make any sense out of it. She looks around, finds a spare blanket, and puts it over the two sleeping buddies.

A heavily bandaged female patient on the next bed speaks to her.

"Wow, the fabled White Devil herself."

Nanoha does not answer but gives a weak smile. The patient nods.

"Captain Doe, Vaizen Air. Sorry, I can't sit up and salute...really, I wish I could." The patient chuckles and continues. "Who'd have thought a day would come I fly with the White Devil."

Nanoha gives the woman a little smile and a polite nod. After that, she walks out of the building into the parking lot.

.

Nanoha walks across the busy parking lot to the quarantine hangar. An armed soldier stops her.

"Halt! You can't-" The man sees the bloody uniform. "Whoa, are you hurt?" He then spots the rank. The soldier snaps a clean salute.

"Lieutenant colonel, this place is a quarantine area. Pardon me, but I have to ask you to turn back."

Nanoha silently returns the salute but stays on the spot, which makes the soldier uneasy. The man shuffles a bit.

"I…I assume you are here for the Helios people, yes?" he inquires. The Helios crew have returned from an unknown world. The Bureau has to make sure they brought nothing nasty back.

"If all is well they will be out in three days. Please have patience, madam." The soldier fidgets and hesitates before adding. "…you are…you are the White-"

"Wing" Nanoha cuts him off with a single word. The soldier snaps upright and stands in even more attention.

"Yes, lieutenant colonel. Honored to meet you in person, madam! But please, I have to ask you to turn back. Good night, madam!" He salutes again, indicating this will be the end of their interaction for today. Nanoha sighs, returns the salute, and turns back. She walks across the parking lot and reenters the building.

.

Nanoha finds the canteen. She puts some foods and a bottle of water on a tray and sits down alone at a small table. She silently, methodically, and absentmindedly goes through what's on the tray. Occasionally someone walking past would do a double-take, whispering to other 'Isn't she the White Devil?'

After returning the tray, she walks up flights of stairs to the fifth floor, locates a door labeled 'Quality Assurance Director', and enters the dimly lit room, where Fate is sleeping on a single bed, wired to monitors checking her vitals.

Nanoha finds an armchair at a corner of the makeshift patient room, moves it closer to the bed, sits, leans forward, and silently watches the sleeping figure. Her hands start shaking, and soon she trembles. Nanoha hugs herself. All the worries and bad thoughts and dreads and fear she has had the entire day rush through her mind in one big sweep and the feeling is too much for her.

"Oh, god, Fate-chan. When I saw Helios blow up I was mad. So mad. I thought I lost you." She rocks back and forth. "So mad…"

**#**

.

It's dawn, still a couple of hours before the sunrise. In the dimly lit hospital room, Fate thrashes around, sweating, long blond hair getting tangled, having a nightmare. With a gasp, she opens her eyes. Calming herself down slowly, she notices faint snoring coming from a side. Turning her head she finds under the dim light Nanoha slumped in an armchair, sleeping with the head hung low, dried up blood all over her flight combat uniform. With a gasp Fate jumps out of the bed, kneeling before the sleeping woman.

"Oh my god, are you hurt?"

She examines the body and lets out a sigh of relief after realizing her friend is not hurt. She gently caresses a hand that's clutching the armrest tightly even in the sleep.

"Rough day?" Fate whispers.

A beeping noise comes from Nanoha's chest area. Raising Heart, now in a necklace form, is receiving a call from someone. The beeping continues.

Fate suddenly has an idea, of surprising her friend, and gets on her bed again, closes her eyes, and pretends to be asleep.

With a jerky motion, Nanoha wakes up. Yawning, she brings up the face of Agito on the video call.

.

"Nanoha, I heard from the squadron you are at the hospital. Have you checked on Fate? Is she OK?" asks Agito sincerely. Nanoha thanks her and says Fate is OK. She glances at the figure on the bed.

"She's sleeping."

Agito sighs in relief. She continues.

"Anyway, Princess has ordered an attack."

This surprises Nanoha.

"An attack? But we are so few?" She notices Agito does not seem to be worried at all.

"Yes. Signum plans to draw them out into the open and dissect them with Vita and Subaru." Agito informs nonchalantly.

"She thinks we can pull it off?" asks Nanoha. Agito shrugs.

"You know Signum...If she thinks we can do it, we can do it."

Nanoha considers it for a second, then nods in agreement. Agito continues.

"We are going to kill a whole lot of them today, but we need you up in the air. Get back to the Terminal and we talk in more detail."

Ending the call, Nanoha stands up. She gently gives a light kiss on Fate's forehead before leaving the room.

Upon hearing the door closing, Fate Testarossa opens her eyes wide - terrified.


	6. 6: Testarossa

It's dawn with only a sliver of light on the horizon. Nanoha lands in front of a large hangar in the Terminal compound, and walks into Signum's temporary HQ, where the other unit commanders are already gathered, sipping strong coffees readying themselves to plough through the second day of this bloody war.

Nanoha notices Vita has arrived during the night. A short childlike red-haired soldier with a matching attitude, having a chat with Signum with a visible discontent on her face.

"-really, I should have smashed that silly Hello Kitty ashtray a long time ago." Vita is saying.

Nanoha joins in.

"Hey, that was a gift from me. All the way from Japan."

"OK, then you tell her to quit." Vita snaps. She looks up and down running her eyes over Nanoha.

"You got blood all over you." Vita points out.

"Oh…" Nanoha finally realizes why everyone has been asking her if she was hurt. The two longtime friends air-kiss and hug in greeting.

Subaru taps on Nanoha's shoulder. She has come over from the hill for the mission briefing.

"Nanoha-san, thanks for yesterday." Subaru leans in. "Hey, I brought something you've got to see. She looks just like-"

Signum slaps the back of Subaru's head.

"I think I know what that is, and no. The last thing I need is a confused Nanoha."

.

Signum walks up in front of her desk, with Agito hovering around her shoulder.

"Now, please be seated, people." She pulls out a giant map showing the area between the hill and the town.

"Princess has ordered an offensive, and here is how it's going to be." She points at the hill about 5km west of the town. The hill stands out like a pimple on a smooth face, jutting out in the middle of a vast rolling plain.

"Since we do not know where the enemy is heading, I'm going to present them a target they would want to prioritize. In three hours, I and the Raptor battalion will draw the enemy out into the open here-"

The Vaizen Air Wing's group leader raises his hand.

"What Raptors? I thought you guys were it?" asks Bug Boy.

"They were supposed to be delivered to Fedikia, but Princess flashed her charming smile on the right people." Signum flashes her own smile. "The Raptors are ours now."

She draws a vertical line halfway between the town and the hill.

"Once the enemy crosses this line, Anvil swings down from the north, Punchkid comes up from the south. I roll them from the front." She nods at Agito. "Agito will give you full detail shortly."

Nanoha raises her hand.

"I guess you want a squadron support per battalion?"

"That is correct." Signum nods. "Midchilda Wing go with Anvil, Vaizen with Punchkid."

"OK." Says the Vaizen leader. "Who's Anvil, by the way?" he asks.

"That's me." Vita waves from couple seats away. Bug Boy quickly glances at Vita's chest.

"Oh…I see. That's why."

Vita, of course, catches the glance. She rages.

"It's referring to me wielding a war-hammer!"

"Pffft!" Agito fails to hold the laughter. Vita points her finger at the little fairy girl accusingly.

"You of all people?"

**#**

.

It's still very early in the morning in Midchilda's Capital Defense Corps HQ. Hayate is asleep slumped over her desk in her office. The light is off with the windows curtained off, but the room is partially illuminated by multiple holo-displays floating over the desk, displaying force status, unit's readiness, tactical maps, etc.

Suddenly Reinforce pops out next to the Commander's sleeping head. The lights come on in the office, curtains are drawn, and windows flap open. Reinforce screams into Hayate's ears.

"Wake up, Hayate! Wake up!"

Hayate wakes up with a jolt. Rubbing her eyes, she yawns. Reinforce ushers her into the attached exclusive bathroom and helps Hayate wash her face and brush her teeth. The little fairy-like girl then produces a clean freshly pressed shirt and a new pair of stockings. She helps her Boss change.

"Signum sent me her plan so late in the night!" Hayate complains, yawning.

"That's her early morning. At least you got some sleep." Says Reinforce, buttoning up Hayate's shirt. "I bet Signum didn't get any sleep at all." She leans back a bit and checks Hayate's hair. She finds them acceptable.

"You wanted to invite JCS and the Security Adviser, remember?"

"Yes, I did. Is Signum ready?" asks Hayate, raising her chin so Reinforce can tie her necktie better.

"She's in position waiting for your green light."

The two return to the desk. Reinforce pours a mug full of freshly brewed coffee. Hayate takes a sip and sighs.

"Right. Let's bring them in."

Reinforce opens the double door, and uniformed men and women pour into the room, setting up displays and consoles. Signum's face appears in front of Hayate.

"Good morning, Princess. I'm ready to go."

"Good morning, my dear lady knight. How are the new Raptors?" asks Hayate. Signum looks pleased.

"Brand new, up to date, impeccable, as good as it gets." The delivery package even included a Strike howitzer battery, much to Signum's delight.

"But you have to settle it with Fedikia at some point in the future." Signum suggests from another world. Hayate shrugs it off.

"Alright. I will bring JCS and the Adviser on board."

She initiates a video conference and the faces of Lindy and the Security Adviser appear next to Signum's

"Good morning, Madam Chairwoman. Good morning, Sir Adviser. We are about to commence." Hayate greets the two honored guests. She continues.

"I hope to deal a significant blow to their forces and rob them of the chance to regain the initiative."

Lindy smiles.

"Good luck, lieutenant general. This morning's success will be a huge morale boost across the Bureau."

The Security Adviser agrees with an appreciating nod. The public has become aware of the overwhelming enemy strength, and there already is a call for negotiation.

"Managing Directors need something to show to the public and say 'Hey, we can handle this'."

"Then you are in good hands, sir. Signum is my best." Hayate faces Signum and gestures dramatically.

"Unleash the-"

"Yes, commander!" Signum cuts off Hayate mid-sentence, leaving the young general awkwardly in the middle of a pose that was meant to be cool.

.

The brand-new Raptor battalion has relieved Punchkid on the hill. Enjoying the Vaizen's dawn breeze, Signum stands in front of the large-caliber Strike howitzer cannons manned by the combat droids. She raises a hand.

"One round! F-"

"Would you step aside, major general?" A Raptor droid suggests.

"Oops. Sorry." Signum moves away from the barrels. "One round! Fire!"

A single cannon fires off.

.

The shot lands on the quiet and still sleeping town's central plaza, creating a deafening explosion. The town comes to life.

.

Zafira's voice fills Signum's comm.

"That's impressive. You are on target; fire for effect."

Signum turns to the droids with a smile.

"Battery, fire for effect."

.

The masked invaders, now fully awake, rush out of their newly acquired houses to investigate what the explosion was about. They hear a lot of whistling and then suddenly the plaza erupts in earthshaking explosions, again and again.

The shock frightens the girls. They cover their ears, instinctively ducking low, some letting out a yelp of fear upon series of deafening explosion sounds.

The senior girl with the red ribbon quickly casts optics magic, trying to find the source of this great danger.

"It's coming from that hill!" she points to the distant high hill.

Then a stray round hits a grocery store, leveling it. The girls gasp collectively. They are furious.

"We gotta do something about this!" a nearby masked girl shouts over the noise.

.

"They are moving out." Zafira informs his division commander. Signum makes a round call to her unit leaders.

"All units, status?"

"Anvil is in position. White Devil is with me on the ground." Vita reports from a concealed position located north of the expected axis of the enemy advance.

"Punchkid and Vaizen Air ready to roll out." Subaru reports from the south.

Signum notices Agito floating nearby, covering her pointy ears with tiny hands, trying her best not to be blown away by the blast. The shock of artillery pieces firing nearby is having a significant effect on the tiny body. Signum gently embraces the little girl.

"Good. Stand by. Let them cross the designated line." Says Signum to her junior officers. Hayate's hologram face floating before her gives a thumbs up. So far so good.

**#**

.

Lieutenant Alph's platoon is just outside the Staging Dock, concealed and cloaked. One of the soldiers who have been observing the gate signals to the platoon leader.

"Lieutenant, something is up at the gate."

Alph moves next to the man to get a better look. She zooms in using optics magic.

A group of invaders is casting a spell right in front of the gate.

"What are they up to?" Alph wonders.

.

Once the masked girls finish the spell, an opaque projected image appears out of the gate. It's the hooded woman. She first seems disoriented but quickly gathers composure. A senior girl bows politely.

"Good morning, mother. Welcome."

The hooded woman looks around, surveying the world.

"Where is the ship? What is this place?"

"I'm sorry, mother, they had destroyed the ship themselves before we could do anything." The senior girl points at the wreckage. "But we've captured this place. And the town right outside."

The projected image of the hooded woman carefully examines the world. She takes in and reads the world's parameters. She knows this place.

"This…this is Vaizen."

"It's not Midchilda?" The senior girl sounds disappointed.

The mother slowly looks around, trying to determine what to make of the situation.

"No, but we are very close."

The projected image indicates the hooded woman pulling out a holo-map in front of her, examining it. She looks up to the sky, to the seaside coastal line, to the inland. She corks her head slightly, unsure.

"This should be an old Sail Force base..." She continues studying the map. "…and there should be a teleportation terminal that way...wonder if it's still there?" The mother points inland.

The senior girl does not understand what her mother is talking about.

"Mother, what is a teleportation terminal?"

The hooded woman is in a good mood. After all, Vaizen is practically next door to Midchilda.

"It's a place with hundreds of portals to other worlds. Permanent portals." She looks at the map again. "But my map is old. Too old." The projected image looks straight at the senior girl standing in front.

"Find me a new map, and I can be sure. Something that resembles this." She displays the old map, so the girl can have a better look.

"We will have sisters look for it, mother."

The hooded woman nods.

"Yes, but I also want you girls to press forward." She points to the west. "Follow the big road that way about 100km and there should be the Terminal…if it's still there."

"If we capture it, can we go to Midchilda?" The senior girl asks.

"Yes…At last."

The senior mage calls other girls over, points at the projected image of the map, and tells the girls to look for something resembling it. She also calls another group of girls and points to westward inland, explaining what is to be done.

The hooded woman gazes around, emotional. Despite the pseudo-reality of seeing Vaizen from millions of worlds away, she wants to have a better look. She removes the hood, revealing a dark-haired old woman with a determined face, savoring the view.

.

At the outskirts of the Staging Dock, Alph stumbles backward and falls on her behind.

"Holy fuck…"

**#**

.

The howitzer battery continues firing on the advancing column of the enemy. The invaders march onward, barriers fully deployed, braving the onslaught.

"What now?" The Security Adviser's hologram face asks.

"Sir, as you can see the enemy is about to step into the kill zone." Signum explains. Soon, she will set Anvil and Punchkid loose who will assault the enemy flanks with big guns blazing. Signum continues.

"We dissect them to pieces while I roll the front with the Raptors."

"I'm baffled." Lindy shakes her head. "Running across a long open field in plain view…to assault a dug-in high ground?"

"Generally, they'd want to suppress us with heavy bombardment while they advance, but…it's not happening." Hayate comments. "Noob punks, as I said."

Signum pouts a bit.

"But to be fair, commander, each and every one of them still is a formidable warrior equivalent to two or more of my regular squads."

"What a waste…" says Hayate in a slightly sad tone. "It's the lack of organization and doctrine that will get these capable warriors killed. What a shame."

Lindy and Signum nod in agreement. Signum checks the enemy's progress. It's about time.

"All units, commence-"

Signum is interrupted by Agito whispering into her ear. At first the major general looks at Agito with an expression that says, 'What's that got to do with it?'. Then she blinks a couple of times, puzzled.

"Who?" Signum demands.

.

Watching Signum's hologram face talking with Agito in hushed voices, Hayate senses something is up.

"What's going on?"

Signum faces the other three and clears her throat.

"Sorry about that. I just got an urgent report from my Recon. Irrelevant for the current mission, but still a significant intel."

"Bring it on, then." Hayate gestures. Signum clears her throat again.

"Right, commander. Recon sighted the enemy reporting to what appears to be a projected image of their leader."

"Inter-dimensional projection...Well, the gate is still open, so it's not too hard to do that." Lindy shows off her knowledge. Signum hesitates a bit before continuing.

"Here's the important bit. The enemy leader appears to be Dr. Precia Testarossa."

"Who?" Hayate blurts out.

"Precia Testarossa." Signum repeats. Hayate shakes her head to focus.

"Sorry, I meant…what? How is that even possible?"

"That's ridiculous. Are you sure?" Lindy cannot believe it either.

Signum, on the other hand, looks convinced.

"Madam, the report and the name come from none other than lieutenant Alph herself. She knows a Testarossa when she sees one."

Lindy and Hayate make the O-faces.

"Just who the hell is this Testarossa person?" The Security Adviser demands to know.

"She was… She is-" Lindy is about to explain but is interrupted by Hayate.

"Sorry to interrupt, madam. Signum, hold the attack. Do not engage. Stop the barrage."

"What?" The other three shouts in unison.

"Just…hold it." Hayate quickly makes a call. "Hang on a bit, please."

Seconds later, Teana joins the conference call.

"Morning, Hayate. Can I go to Vaiz-" Teana sees the other faces. She quickly snaps a salute. "Good morning, sir. Good morning, madam."

"Teana, I need you to check something really quick." Says Hayate.

"Sure, but you've got to get me to Vaiz-" Teana shuts up as Hayate holds a hand up.

"I want to you look up one Precia Testarossa. She was presumed dead, so the file should be in the archive."

Teana starts querying through her device.

"Testarossa…Testarossa… wasn't that Fate's name?" She finds the file. "Here it is!" she quickly skims through the document.

"Dr. Precia Testarossa; Wanted for illegal handling of forbidden magic, destruction of a Bureau transport ship, and oh my god, the Jewel Seed incident. Missing, presumed dead."

"Hold up, hold up." The Security Adviser butts in. "Commander Yagami, I think I know where you are getting at, but-"

Hayate ignores the man. She presses on.

"Teana, what's her status?"

"Missing. Presumed-"

"I meant her citizenship!" Hayate yells, much to everyone's surprise. She is clearly very upset. "I don't care if she's a criminal or presumed dead whatever! Is she a citizen?" Hayate asks. "Now she's turned up alive, is she still a citizen?"

Lindy, too, realizes the implication and gasps. The Security Adviser just face-palms, sighing heavily.

"Yes. She is a citizen. What do you-" Hayate drops Teana from the comm. She slams her desk with both fists, again and again, letting out a long scream of frustration while her staff and the three faces floating in front of her watch in silence. Shortly, she regains her composure, but on the verge of tears.

"Abort, Signum. Abort. Call it off."

.

On the hill of Vaizen, Signum's face turns red in anger.

"Are you mad?"

Not far from her, Agito is busy handling incoming calls from the unit commanders. She's telling them to hold, which is growing more and more difficult. Signum continues.

"Abort? We are this close to decimating the enemy, and you want me to abort?"

She looks at Lindy and the Security Adviser for support, but they just shake heads.

Hayate has her face buried in hands.

"Remember yesterday? Subaru said something about her killing Fate-chan?"

"Yes, I do remember." Signum shoots back, fuming with frustration. "What's that got to do with our situation now?"

Hayate is almost crying, upset.

"We have no enemies. They are fucking Alicia clones! Led by Precia fucking Testarossa! And she is a fucking citizen!" She screams.

"So fucking what?!" Signum screams back, her veins bulging.

Lindy clears her throat and reluctantly offers the explanation.

"Major general, Armed Forces are prohibited from operating against Bureau registered citizens in Bureau territory. The Office handles citizens' misconduct."

Signum is stunned. She gapes at the Chairwoman of the JCS.

"Misconduct? Madam Chairwoman, with all due respect, these people invaded Vaizen, which technically makes it a war." She points at herself. "Soldiers fight the war, madam." She points at the direction of the Staging Dock. "My men and women; they died yesterday fighting a war! Not some misconduct!"

"I understand your frustration, major general." The Security Adviser intervenes. "But Commander Yagami is right." He sighs and continues. "The moment she became aware of their citizenship, anything she does unto them thereafter is illegal."

Agito is looking at the video faces with bewildered eyes, mouth open. Signum takes half a dozen deep breaths to calm herself down.

"Alright, sir, Precia Testarossa is a citizen. I leave her alone. Executive Office arrests her or whatever. OK, I can live with that. But this army here…these clones-" Then she abruptly stops, realizing what she is saying. The Security Adviser nods with a knowing expression.

"It's not that easy, is it?" says the man.

"What about the clones?" Agito has to ask.

The Adviser lets out a sigh.

"It's a fundamental issue, little girl." Should the Bureau regard the clones as some meaty tools of a wanted criminal, or as legitimate individuals? If a clone of a citizen, created by a citizen, engages in criminal activity, does the Office apprehend, try, and judge the said clone as a legitimate citizen, or just have it be destroyed on sight? It is an issue that cannot be handled by mere guidelines or acts but is something that goes all the way up to the Bureau Charters. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on one's view, there is legal precedence; a case of exactly the same nature as the current situation. And the subject of the said legal precedence, ironically, now heads the Bureau's law enforcement, making sure the laws are upheld and the integrity of the Charters protected.

"Fate 'Testarossa' is a legitimate citizen. Never once during the Jewel Seed incident had the Bureau considered her otherwise." Lindy says through gritted teeth. This hits Signum hard. Her face is no longer red, but pale. Her shoulders sagging, head hung low, she hails her junior officers.

"All units, stand down. Stand down. The mission is…" She swallows hard. "It's a no go."

The comm erupts in chaos as her unit officers demand an explanation. Signum looks at Hayate's face, lost.

"To. The. Letter. Signum, to the letter. That's what we do." Says Hayate firmly, despite herself looking very upset.

"Your commander chose to do the right thing, major general." The Adviser offers. "Right thing, but frustratingly, not the best thing for our current situation." He sighs. "Nobody's fault. It's beyond the scopes of the Armed Forces." Indeed. The entire Bureau system was designed specifically so that such things are not decided by powerful men and women wielding weapons. "I gotta talk to the Managing Directors."

Signum nods and thanks the man sincerely in appreciation. Hearing those words from the Security Adviser gives a little sense of pride in her heart. Always feels good to see someone appreciating her Princess.

"Understood, sir." Signum gets on comm again. "All units, shut up and listen. An order from Princess; No offensive actions whatsoever are to be initiated from our side." She looks at Hayate for approval and gets a nod. Ignoring the loud protests filling the comm she continues. "Self-preservative measures only and with precision weapons. Do not shoot unless they shoot at you first. Do not shoot at who's not shooting at you."

The protests get more heated.

"Just shut the fuck up and say yes!" Signum yells into the comm. She calms herself down. "Assemble at my position. We are pulling out."

.

Agito has been wondering for a while and she has to ask.

"So…sir, if the Armed Forces are not allowed to fight-"

"That's a good question!" The Adviser gives a hearty smile. "We are dealing with a wanted criminal and her minions...It's technically Executive Office's job, is it not?" He turns to Lindy.

"It is…" Lindy agrees, but she knows what that means. Hayate exhales a long sigh.

"But is the Office even capable of dealing with this? Or…more importantly, can we really ask Fate-chan to come and face her clone sisters, and…" Hayate trails off.

"That'd be an inhumanely cruel thing we do to her." Says Signum, bitter.

The Security Adviser blinks a couple of times. Speaking of Fate…

"Where is she any-"

Something traveling at beyond hypersonic speed passes the top of the hill. The sonic boom hits the ground, knocking everyone down.

**#**

.

The marching girls are caught completely off-guard by the sudden appearance of Fate, who has seemingly come to existence out of thin air in front of them. Still in her now all crumpled Executive Office uniform she wore when she rushed through the gate, her long blond hair a tangled mess, eyes wild and breathing heavily, Fate's appearance is that of a train wreck.

"Stop! It's a trap! Turn back!" She shouts at the top of her lungs, arms stretched out trying to block the girls from passing her.

The masked girls are, understandably, confused. Fate continues.

"It's a trap! They will kill you all!"

.

"Erm…uh…" Signum is lost. "OK, we are pulling back. I will report again from the Terminal." She salutes to her superiors and drops off from the conference call. The floating video faces disappear. Signum signals Agito to cut all visual feeds going to Midchilda. She has no intention to let Midchilda know whatever the hell Fate is doing.

"What the heck is she doing?"

Signum zooms in using optics magic to have a better view.

.

After mumbling goodbyes, Hayate ends the conference call she was hosting. As soon as the faces of Lindy and the Security Adviser are gone, she rolls on the floor, her shirt getting all crumpled and the skirt riding up as she flails arms and legs throwing tantrum.

"Arrrrggggghhh! I was this close!" She cries. "Whyyyyy! Why Testarossaaaaa! Why nooooooow!"

Her junior officers watch in awkward silence. Reinforce ushers them out of their commanding officer's room.

.

The first thing the Alicia clones ask Fate is, of course, "Where is your mask?"

"This is wrong! Mother is using you!" Fate is shouting as loud as she can hoping all the girls can hear her. "To her, you are nothing but failed replacement for dead Alicia!" She continues, almost choking from the sudden rush of her own past memories and emotions sweeping inside her mind.

"Turn back now! The soldiers are going to kill you all!"

The clone girls are confused. They look at each other's masked faces. A little one steps up.

"Sister, what are you talking about? Of course, we are not Alicia."

"Wha-what?" Fate is stunned.

"Besides, what's wrong about helping mama bring Alicia back?" the little one looks around, trying to get supports from her sisters. The girls all cheer.

"Yeah!"

"What are you talking about?" Fate does not like where this is going. She has not accounted for the possibility that the girls know what they are doing. She presses on regardless.

"All mother cares about is Alicia. She doesn't care about you at all!" says Fate, but her voice has toned down in volume. "She's just using you...making you do bad things!"

The girls are still confused. The little masked one speaks up again.

"Yeah, so? We care about Alicia, too!"

Her sisters agree loudly. Another one steps up.

"If it wasn't for Alicia, mother wouldn't have made us at all!"

Fate's jaw drops. No matter how sad and twisted that statement is, it is so true Fate cannot argue with that. She simply has never thought of it like that. Another masked girl, this time a senior, shouts from the back.

"And I got to meet my sisters. And I'm grateful for that!"

The girls cheer again, some even clapping.

"This is the least we can do for Alicia!" the little girl shouts, and the two thousand Alicia clone girls cheer loudly.

"For Alicia!"

.

Punchkid battalion is lying low far south of the masked invaders, vehicles camouflaged and engines running. Subaru and her assistant use optics magic to observe what is going on. They are, like everyone else, confused.

"Can't make out what's she's saying, but they are cheering. That's a good sign, right, major?" The assistant asks.

"Well, she is a very inspiring person, indeed." Subaru answers, meaning it. She is relieved to see Fate alive but is confused at the same time. Who's that girl I killed?

"I really hope it works out." The assistant means it. "But, major, aren't we supposed to head back to the hill?"

"Hmm…" Subaru wants to stay around. "If something goes bad, Fate-san would need our help." She turns to her assistant and gives a weak smile.

"Maybe I'm worrying too much since Chief Enforcer seems to have a good show going on there…" She trails off. "But…"

"But?" The assistant is curious.

"But I have this feeling Nanoha-san will fuck it up." Says Subaru.

"Let's not jinx it, major."

**#**

.

Nanoha comes down from the sky and lands next to troubled Fate, who is at a loss what to say to the girls. The White Devil has her staff ready to fight, carefully watching the masked girls.

"What are you doing, Fate-chan?"

She surveys the invaders. The girls are tensing up.

"They…they aren't listening." Fate takes a step forward. "You are invading Vaizen! It's wrong!"

Nanoha pulls her dear friend back.

"Fate-chan, it's dangerous. Let's get you out of here."

Fate pushes Nanoha's hand away.

"Whatever the reason, you shouldn't be doing this!" Fate still tries to persuade her clone sisters.

"Sister, you sound like you are on their side!" the little girl points out.

"No! I'm just trying to help you!" Fate shouts to the girls, but they are not convinced.

Nanoha forcefully grabs her life partner.

"What are you doing! Let's go!"

Fate struggles to set herself free from Nanoha's strong grip.

"Hey, leave her alone!" the masked girls are agitated at the sight of their sister struggling. Nanoha tries pulling Fate away from the girls, but the blond Enforcer keeps resisting.

"Nanoha, please. I have to save them."

Nanoha has had enough.

"Save them? Just what exactly are you doing here, Fate-chan! The mission is canceled. Nobody's going to kill them today!"

"No, that's not it." Fate pleads, tearing up. "They are like me. Please, I can't let them go on."

Nanoha is confused. She loses the strength in her grip.

"Like you? What do you mean?"

Fate gestures towards the girls.

"My sisters! They are all Alicia's clones!"

.

Suddenly the time slows down to a crawl for Nanoha. She can hear her own heart thumping, drowning the muffled arguments between the masked enemies and Fate. Come to think of it, they all sound exactly the same as Fate. A masked girl is shouting something, pointing at Nanoha.

"It's her! The flying devil!"

Nanoha looks at Fate's face. The flustered face is slowly shouting something to the clones. Alicia's clones. Each and every single one of them the very incarnation of Fate's own miserable childhood; Years of abuse and violence and abandonment. Nanoha studies her friend's face. Clearly Fate is suffering. Facing her worst nightmare…and two thousand of them. Nanoha can't even fathom the pain Fate is feeling apart from her own immense sadness and rage. This shall not be.

Nanoha turns to face the masked Alicia clones. They are drawing weapons, shouting to Fate.

"Sister, get away from her!"

"Save her!"

'No, you get out of my Fate's life' Nanoha thinks. Her heart is beating like crazy. This is unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. These demons suddenly appearing and tormenting Fate. Simply by existing these girls are causing unimaginable pain to her dearest. This shall not be.

About two dozen clone girls are jumping on Nanoha with their beam blades ready to cut and slice. Fate has thrown herself in the path of the masked abominations, trying to protect Nanoha.

Raising Heart is heating up because Nanoha's heart is raging. Her face distorts with the White Devil's wrath. Nanoha has come to a conclusion; erase these nightmare demons out of existence.

All her senses return to normal and the time flow returns to as usual. Nanoha suddenly blinks into the middle of the masked girls in mid-leap, slamming one down with her staff. The unfortunate masked clone simply explodes to meats and bones. Even before the gore hits the ground Nanoha has already moved onto a little girl; a violent tap on the face with Raising Heart and the little head behind the equally little mask bursts like a watermelon, spraying the girls behind with little brain matters. Nanoha grabs the edge of a beam blade that was swinging down on her and shoves it into a masked face, ripping the arm attached to the blade off of the owner in the process.

The enraged White Devil is about to strike down another clone girl, but Fate's intelligence device, Bardiche, now in its blade form, blocks the swing. The impact sends a pulse of shock wave that knocks the clones down, cratering the ground.

"I can't let you kill them!" Fate yells. She is surprised at herself for pulling her weapon against Nanoha.

"I won't allow them to be!"

Nanoha gets up in the air, preparing for a bombardment spell, weaving through the javelins fired by the clones below. She is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Bardiche's sharp blade swinging down on her face. She has no other choice but to parry. Another shock wave knocks the girls below flat to the ground.

.

From far north, the Midchilda flight mages take off, breaking out of concealment.

"She just attacked the group leader! That's it. Engage!"

"No, you get back!" Vita tries to stop them. "Get back down here!"

Nanoha's 1st squadron ignores Vita and heads towards the clone army at top speed.

.

A large group of Alicia clones is in the air in hot pursuit of the White Devil while the rest of the sisters are shooting up, hurling death magic in their attempt to kill the lone enemy.

Every time Nanoha tries to attack and kill Alicia clones she is interrupted by Fate's jabs and swings. The blond enforcer skillfully switches between scythe and blade making her mode of attacks unpredictable, forcing Nanoha to prioritize dealing with Fate. Nanoha sometimes parries and maneuvers around, and sometimes counter-attacks on her dear friend in order to make the much-needed space for another attempt at killing the masked girls. The air is in constant vibration and turmoil stirred by the magical power overflow from the two Midchilda mages clashing each other. The Alicia clones, despite their efforts, can't keep up with these two titans.

Fate once again closes in on Nanoha. As she is about to swing her blade a volley of offensive magic discharged by the Midchilda flight mages land on her, engulfing the space with bright flashes of explosions and smoke.

"No!" Nanoha, horrified, screams.

"No!" The Alicia clones for once share Nanoha's sentiment and they scream, too.

Fate flies out of the smoke cloud, unhurt and unfazed. She stops midair at a distance from Nanoha and dusts off her uniform. A fierce battle erupts between the Midchilda's Air Wing and the two thousand Alicia clones, while Nanoha and Fate float motionless with sad expressions, their eyes locked on to each other's.

.

Subaru turns pale.

"Shit! 1st squadron just shot Fate-san!"

"You jinxed it, major!" the assistant yells accusingly as the Vaizen Air Wing takes off. Bug Boy is leading the charge.

"Squadron, engage those lunatics! Protect Chief Enforcer!"

Subaru grimaces and makes her mind up.

"Fuck it. Battalion, move out! Assault formation!"

Punchkid's armored vehicles break from their hidden positions, and rush across the open field, their heavy-hitting guns firing non-stop.

.

Vita on the other side of the plain bites her lips. The flight mages have gone crazy and are shooting at each other while simultaneously trying to take on the invaders. Vita can't just sit there and watch it any longer.

"We can't let the flyboys fight them alone! Captain Mondial, take the point!"

A young officer nearby snaps to attention.

"Yes, major!" The young captain then rushes to his company. "Company, we are on point!"

"Anvil, assault! We take the heat off from the Air Wings!" Vita shouts her order into the battalion comm channel.

**#**

.

Midchilda's 1st squadron is protecting their boss from the clone army and at the same time trying to attack Fate, who in return is protected by the Vaizen flight mages, who at the same time are also fighting off the airborne invaders.

The local Air Armament comm channel is filled with Midchilda flight mages and their Vaizen counterparts demanding to know what the fuck the other is doing.

On the ground, Rapid Response's two battalions are attacking the Alicia clones from both north and south flanks, despite frantic comm from the division command post ordering ceasefire.

The clone girls have desperately dug holes and took up defensive stances, mimicking what they saw from the Bureau soldiers the day before. With the element of surprise gone and air support now non-existent, the attack has come to a stalemate on both flanks. The soldiers have dismounted from their carriers and begun firing their rifles, using the armored vehicles as covers. The Alicia clones lay low as endless streams of thick deadly magic fly over their heads, hurling their own death across the field.

In the air amidst this chaos, Nanoha and Fate remain motionless, eyes locked onto each other.

After what feels like an eternity, Nanoha moves her eyes to the ground for a fraction of a second, to the Alicia clones, then locks her eyes back onto Fate's again. Raising Heart transforms into its cannon mode, glowing in translucent pink, indicating it is charging for a heavy attack.

Fate's Executive Office uniform morphs into a tight form-fitting aerodynamic mode.

Nanoha, eyes still locked onto Fate's, slowly moves her cannon, centimeter by centimeter, to aim at the mass of masked girls below. Fate responds by lowering her stance, preparing to dash forward at any moment.

"Charge complete." Raising Heart breaks the silence between the two women who when back home share the same bed at night.

As if on cue, Fate blinks forward and appears in front of her dear Nanoha, her blade swinging down with a full intention to connect.

With a loud clang, Bardiche is parried by a double-edged sword engulfed in the red flame that has appeared out of nowhere. Fate winces from the intense heat radiating from the sword. At the same time, a strong hand has jerked Nanoha's cannon upward, sending the massive area bombardment attack magic up into the air, hitting nothing.

A fiery lady knight in armor has appeared between the two mages. Her facial expression makes it clear Signum is fuming with rage.

"CEASE. FIRE!"

Booming across the chaotic battlefield, Signum's voice is so loud and carries such commanding authority even the Alicia clones stop in their motions.

"Cease fire…" Signum whispers this time, but everyone has by now stopped whatever the hell they were doing and can hear her loud and clear, paying unprecedented attention to this single angry Wolkenritter floating in the air.

"Major Nakajima. Major Vita." Signum whispers into her comm.

"Yes, madam!" Vita and Subaru in their respective command posts on each side of the field snap to attention.

"Back to the hill."

"Yes, madam!"

Signum descends to the ground. The masked clone girls make space for the flaming lady knight. The knight general silently surveys the invaders for a moment, meeting the curious and awed eyes behind each mask. She finally breaks her silence.

"By now you should have realized I had a trap set up here, prepared to kill you all."

That information makes the girls take further cowering steps away from Signum. She points with her sword at Fate in the air and continues.

"Thanks to her persuasion, I will let you live today. Now, go."

The clones do not seem to know what to do. Signum continues.

"I give you 48 hours to make a decision. Surrender or die." She then proceeds to draw a thick line on the ground with her flaming sword.

"If you cross this line in the meantime, you will face my wrath!"

The Alicia clones who are on the 'wrong' side of the line quickly shuffle across.

"Now go." Signum glares at the hesitating clone girls. "Go!"

"Battalion! Move out!"

Vita shouts her order at the top of her lungs, making sure the invaders can hear her. With that, Anvil's soldiers get into their personnel carriers and start pulling back towards the hill with the mounted weapons still pointed at the invaders. Punchkid follows the suit.

Signum raises her sword and then points it inland. The flight mages take the visual cue and head west, the two squadrons keeping a fair distance between them.

Cautiously, the Alicia clones start to retreat towards the town.

"Sister, come on!" One of them turns and shouts at Fate in the air.

"She comes with me!" Signum intervenes. She thinks for a second and adds. "I give you my word she will be unharmed."

"But…how can we trust you?" asks the clone girl.

The flame surrounding Signum and her sword flares up in rage.

"You dare question my honor?"

The clones reluctantly at first, but then eagerly leave the battlefield, heading east towards the town.

.

When the invaders have moved a good distance away Signum rises back up in the air to the two remaining Bureau mages. Signum is not sure if she can handle it. An unthinkable has happened between these two.

"Nanoha. Fate. Let's head to the Terminal. We should talk." Signum pleads.

Nanoha, her eyes still locked onto Fate's, transforms Raising Heart back to its staff mode. Fate, too, morphs her sonic form attire back to the usual Executive Office uniform.


	7. 7: Chained By the Rules

The Alicia clones are returning to the town. Quite many of them turn around every few steps to see the fiery lady knight still floating in the air far back.

"Who was that woman, and why are we even listening to her?" One of them says to no one in particular.

"I don't know about you, but when she said 'Go' my feet just moved themselves." Says another girl.

At the edge of the town, they stop and turn around. The three Bureau mages in the distance start flying inland.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we had someone like her." Says a senior mage with a red ribbon on her head. Another senior nods in agreement. They sigh and continue into the town.

.

"Vita, I leave the Raptors in your care." Signum tells over the division's communication. "Subaru sit back behind and get some rest but swing around the hill if Vita needs help. Got it?"

"Understood." Punchkid and Anvil acknowledge.

Vita and Subaru are setting up their soldiers on and behind the hill. They stop and watch as their division commander leads the Takamachi households over their heads, flying towards the Terminal deep inland. Midchilda's 1st squadron, which was circling above the hill, follows behind, leaving the Vaizen flight mages alone in the sky.

Bug Boy lands next to Vita.

"What was with all that theatrics?" he asks.

"It worked though." Vita shrugs. She waves to Subaru walking up the hill.

"Still can't believe she bullshitted our way out of that clusterfuck." Subaru comments, joining in. Vita slaps Subaru's behind.

"Language, little girl. Language."

Subaru and the Vaizen squadron leader look down at the little childish figure reaching their chest height.

"Well, she did establish herself as the big boss here." Rubbing her bottom Subaru continues. "I think they were kinda...in awe?"

"Does anyone know why Princess canceled the show?" Vita looks around. The officers shrug. "What was Fate doing out here anyway?"

The other two officers shake their heads. Nobody has a clue what is going on.

"What now?" Bug Boy asks.

"Signum did offer a 48 hours ceasefire, so let's hope they stick to it." Subaru suggests and changes the topic in a rather serious tone.

"You know I've been fighting them since hour zero, right?"

The other two nod. Subaru goes on.

"Initially they were strictly melee only. Then at the end of the day, they were shooting explosion magic. And today when I was assaulting, they were digging in and showing some very crude fire-team maneuvers."

"Yeah, I've noticed that, too." Bug Boy agrees.

Vita raises her eyebrows.

"You mean they are learning?"

"It felt rather..." Subaru searches for the right words. "As if they were mimicking my defense from yesterday."

Vita puts her arms at her waist angrily.

"Oh great." She scoffs. "Thank you very much, Subaru. You always go ahead and make things hard for me- ow ow ow! Stop! It hurts!"

Subaru releases Vita's ear.

"I'm saying...just be prepared for anything, alright? Things gonna get worse." Says the Punchkid, concerned.

"Worse? I just exchanged casual friendly fire with the White Devil lunatics. Nothing can get worse." Bug Boy comments. While speaking he absentmindedly produces a candy from his pocket and offers it to Vita, who takes it albeit being annoyed at the treatment. Subaru looks at him expectedly but is disappointed no candies are offered to her. She turns to Vita.

"Hey Vita-san, can I have half the Raptors?"

"Screw you. They are mine."

**#**

.

Major General Signum leads Fate and Nanoha into the hangar used as her HQ. She offers the two to be seated and sits down on her swivel chair placed behind her portable desk. Agito, who has disengaged from Unison with Signum, orders the HQ staff to bring out some tea.

Signum remains silent for a while, thinking. She just had the biggest fuck up in her career. She suddenly feels so tired and depressed, and the day hasn't even started in full, still hours away from noon. Signum has gone from cheerfully optimistic to doomed pessimistic within a short span of couple hours, and this swing of the mood is showing in her demeanors. She notices her staff officers trying to avoid the gaze of the gloomy general. Agito is dutifully sticking around, which Signum appreciates.

.

The two culprits sit there in silence, but clearly, there is a lot of stuff going on in their minds.

"Anything to say?" Signum finally breaks the silence. As if on cue, Nanoha and Fate jump up like school kids.

"You can't kill them!"

"We have to kill them all!"

Signum raises her hand to quiet the two down. After they sit back down, she points at Fate first.

"Fate, let's hear you first. I saw you were having some heated discussion before Nanoha here turned up. What exactly were you doing?"

"I told them you were going to kill them all. And I told them the truth. That they are being manipulated to do bad things."

Listening to Fate, Signum senses something is off. She recalls the girls cheering.

"And they cheered? That doesn't sound right."

Fate hesitates.

"They were...they are not being manipulated. They are willingly doing this for Alicia." She hangs her head low.

"They what?" Nanoha butts in, eyes mad.

"They know what they are doing." Answers Fate, upset.

She didn't know what she was doing when she had been manipulated into hunting the Jewel Seeds. Had she known she was a clone, a mere replacement...or had she known about mother's scheme to revive Alicia...' Would that have made any difference?' she wonders. If she had known and willingly collaborated, her encounter with Nanoha would have resulted in something completely different; either she or Nanoha ending up dead. Fate suddenly feels a chill running down her spine. That possibility almost came true just this morning. By her own hands.

"And how does invading Vaizen help Alicia? She's been dead for decades if I remember correctly?" Signum interrupts Fate's train of thoughts. Fate remembers the little girl in Helios' engines room.

"A little girl came on board Helios. They wanted to hijack the ship. She said they want to go to Midchilda."

"With two thousand or so soldiers tagging along..." Signum rubs her chin. The invasion was, after all, inevitable. "But they ended up in Vaizen instead of Midchilda." She concludes.

"And we had our chance!" Nanoha snaps, angry. "We had a chance to end it this morning. Tell me, Signum-san," Nanoha's eyes are burning with frustration. "Why did Hayate cancel the mission?"

Fate looks up. She, too, wants to know. Why did Hayate spare her sisters? Signum sighs.

"An intel came from my Recon...reporting we are dealing with Precia Testarossa." She stops Fate trying to say something. "No, she didn't come herself, but Alph saw her projected image." Fate lets out a sigh of relief. Signum continues.

"Despite being a wanted criminal, she still is a citizen."

"So?" Nanoha demands, confused. Fate's expression changes. The head of the Bureau's law enforcement has realized the legal implication. She and Signum say it at the same time.

"Hayate is not allowed to operate against a citizen."

Nanoha, just like Signum this morning, is baffled. She tries to digest the information.

"...But what about her army here? We could still wipe out the clones-"

Nanoha then realizes what she's saying and shuts up. While keeping her eyes fixed on Nanoha Signum points at Fate across the desk.

"Citizen? Or just some expendable war material?"

Nanoha, face pale, quickly turns to Fate and grabs a hand.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"So, you are not going to kill them?" Fate asks rather hopefully, more concerned about what is going to happen to her sisters than about the fundamental question regarding her clone sisters' legal status.

Signum shrugs.

"Princess decided we can't. For now." She eyes Nanoha intensely. "Nanoha, do you understand that? We are legally restricted to self-preservative actions only. Any other, and Hayate goes down. Do you understand?"

"Argh!" Nanoha pulls her hair in frustration. She understands.

.

They are interrupted by a commotion on the other side of the hangar. HQ staff has gathered in front of a wall-mounted holo-display. Agito hovers over there to check it out, and then she hurries back.

"Major general, you better see this."

"Really? Now?" Signum gestures she is still busy with Fate and Nanoha, but Agito is insistent.

"Somebody leaked our comm to the media. It's on live news now."

Signum jumps up from her seat.

"What the..."

She excuses herself and heads towards the corner, leaving Nanoha and Fate to themselves.

.

The two sit there in awkward silence. Fate observes Nanoha's fidgeting hands, knuckles covered in dried blood and dirt under nails, balled up into fists, constantly tensing up and then relaxing, slightly trembling. She wraps her both hands around one, and Nanoha stiffens up with a gasp.

"What are we doing?" Fate whispers, locking her eyes onto Nanoha's.

"What are we doing?" Fate whispers again, this time to herself.

Nanoha's eyes jiggle and her jaw quivers.

"You were having it good, Fate-chan." Nanoha utters in a broken voice. "You were happy. I was happy. And Vivio...our family..." Nanoha is tearing up. "And then this old nightmare comes knocking on your door-" She is having a hard time breathing. "It hurts me to see you in pain, Fate-chan."

Fate, on the other hand, is surprisingly calm.

"No, Nanoha-"

"Let's end it once and for all" Says Nanoha, chewing her twitching lips. Her fists start to shake uncontrollably.

Fate gets on her knees before Nanoha, her hands still wrapped around the trembling fist.

"No, please listen." She says in a soothing tone. "They are like me. No, I was like them. I was lost." She lays her head on Nanoha's lap. "But then I met you...and I was given a chance."

"But you deserved it!"

"Do you know what they told me?" Fate looks up. "They told me it was the least they could do for Alicia...because if it wasn't for her they wouldn't have been. They wouldn't have met their sisters." Her eyes sparkle. "And they were grateful for it. Do you understand, Nanoha? They are good girls."

Fate pulls Nanoha and embraces the crying White Devil in her arms. She continues, gently running her hand down on Nanoha's head.

"And I realized I'm the same. I wouldn't have met you, Nanoha. I wouldn't have become who I am today. I wouldn't have been the happiest person alive." She locks onto Nanoha's eyes again. "I have to help them."

.

It takes some time before Nanoha stops bawling her eyes out, but she eventually calms down, hiccuping.

"Are you...are you OK with that? Are you really OK with that?" Nanoha asks.

Fate smiles and nods, still kneeling in front of her partner, holding hands. Nanoha inhales and exhales deep, and leans back on the chair, looking up at the high hangar ceiling.

"Did it hurt?"

"What hurt?" Fate is confused by this sudden irrelevant question. Nanoha fidgets again.

"My guys...they shot you."

"Ah~" Fate realizes what Nanoha means. "No, not at all. Please don't be mad at them."

Nanoha lets out weak laughter; half happy, half disappointed.

"I don't know if I should be mad they couldn't even scratch you...or happy you aren't hurt."

"The latter, please." Fate suggests with a kind smile.

Nanoha takes a deep breath.

"So, what now?"

"Mother is still a citizen, and a wanted criminal." That means it is Fate's job. "What about you?" Fate asks her partner.

"I..." Nanoha hesitates. "I can't disobey orders. Besides," Her face is stern again. "They are my nightmares, too." She stands up. "Fate-chan, you do what you gotta do. I won't get in your way, but you get it done quick," Nanoha starts to walk towards the corner where her squadron is resting. "Before I kill them all."

1st squadron jumps up to attention and salutes their group leader. Nanoha leads them out of the hangar, and the flight mages awkwardly nod to Chief Enforcer when they walk past. After all, they tried to kill her this very morning.

Fate watches them fly off for another sortie, but with a pang in her heart. The objective thinking side of her brain is screaming at her heart from within; Despite all that tears and emotional talk, nothing concrete has been established apart from conveying Fate's sentiment towards this whole tragic situation. Fate suddenly feels so powerless. Nanoha is right. This fighting in Vaizen must end before either the Bureau or mother starts to have a drastic idea. But still...it hurts her to hear it from none other than her own Nanoha.

**#**

.

In the meantime, major general Signum watches in horror the live broadcast of breaking news. A news anchor and her reporter are sitting at a desk, playing the audio feed from this morning's Capital Defense Corps communication. She hears her Princess's angry voice booming out of the speakers.

"We have no enemies. They are beep Alicia clones! Led by Precia beep Testarossa! And she is a beep citizen!"

"So, beep what!"

The news network is scrolling a banner at the bottom of the screen, which reads "Breaking News: Yagami cannot fight the invaders."

"Is it us?" Signum demands. Her staff shakes their heads.

"We shook it down hard and thanks god it's not from Rapid Response, madam."

Signum sighs in relief but still is angry. It could be anyone who leaked the audio log to the media. Corps HQ? Unlikely but still possible. The JCS? The Security Board?

.

Hayate glares at Reinforce.

"It wasn't me!"

"This is a serious breach in our data security!" Hayate yells, slamming on her desk.

"Look, I know you are upset." Reinforce tries to calm her boss down. "But it wasn't our people!"

Hayate shakes her fist in the air. She then turns her attention back to the broadcast, seriously pissed she has to chain smoke.

.

"-and was presumed dead." A male reporter explains to his news anchor colleague.

"Wait, wait..." The news anchor stops his colleague. "So Chief Enforcer Harlaown is the first-ever clone made of dead Alicia Testarossa?"

"Reportedly...yes." The reporter nods. "Talk about your past coming back to haunt you. The famed head of the Executive Office now faces a tremendous challenge; bringing her mother and the creator Dr. Precia Testarossa to the justice."

"Wow..." The anchorman shakes his head in disbelief.

.

In the studio of one of the largest news networks, located downtown Cranagan, Midchilda, a gray-haired middle-aged female news anchor is discussing the breaking news with a special guest; the former Bureau Security Adviser, a balding man in his mid-seventies, with sharp eyes but hearty grandpa face. Because of this guest, the show is currently topping the ratings among all news networks. The public sure wants to know what the heck is happening in Vaizen.

"- so, as the former Security Adviser to the Managing Directors, what is your opinion? Can Executive Office handle this? Realistically speaking..." The anchorwoman asks in an elegant voice. She's been around the scene for a long time.

The former Adviser makes a 'phew' face.

"To answer that question, you have to first understand what the Office does, and who the Enforcers are." He waves his hands in the air as if trying to describe a complex idea by an invisible drawing. "The Office polices the Bureau Territory, making sure the laws are enforced and the justice is served. To do that they field the best of the best as its Enforcers."

"In other words, they are capable-"

"No, no." The man interrupts his host. "The best of the best means very few people because...statistics."

"Statistics..." The news anchor encourages him to go on.

"Simply put, Executive Office would not have enough manpower. Sure, they could try pulling every single Enforcer and Agent out of the entire Territory," the man shrugs and continues. "But then we are talking about leaving the rest of the Bureau space in a lawless state."

"Surely we don't want that." The woman comments.

"No, we don't. And even if we do, for what? These...clones? These clones don't care who they face against. Their modus operandi remains regardless."

"What does that mean?"

"That means the clone army won't suddenly play nice just because we send our Enforcers and Agents instead of the soldiers. What we are going to end up is our law enforcement officers taking up arms and playing soldiers in Vaizen. No matter how you look at it, we practically have an active war in Vaizen." Obviously, the former Security Adviser is against the idea of the Office taking over the job.

"Right...and we got professional soldiers for that."

"Exactly."

"So back to the question. Can the Office handle it?" The anchorwoman gets to the point. The man makes another 'phew' face.

"I'd say no." Then he becomes sympathetic. "The horror...Imagine you are Chief Enforcer Harlaown...not only you are not given enough resources for the job, but when the job itself is to go and face your own clone army? And the old abusive mother?" He shudders. "No, I wouldn't want to be in her shoes right now."

.

A stage crew flashes a memo card from behind the camera. It reads 'Yagami'. The anchorwoman nods.

"How about Commander Yagami? She sounded very upset."

The man bobs his head a bit.

"Rightly so...But I'm really impressed. The moment she realizes the legal issue, she stops everything right there right then." He smiles. "I think I fell in love with this lady. 'To the letters.' That's the exact ideal soldier we need."

The anchorwoman raises an eyebrow.

"You are saying it was the right call?"

"Of course!" The man pumps a fist in the air energetically. "Right people in the right positions making the right calls! Believe it or not, the system is working! And I'm really proud because...you know I had the honor to be a part of it."

The news anchor corks her head a bit.

"But, sir. Realistically speaking. Although the situation in Vaizen has now become even more difficult to handle, you are saying it was the right decision?"

The former Adviser comes down to the real world. He sighs.

"Right call, but not the best call. But it's not somebody failing to do their jobs or making bad decisions. The whole thing comes down to the intrinsic nature of our system."

The stage crew flashes another memo card. It read 'Yagami. Win?'

"Do you think lieutenant general Yagami and her forces could handle the situation in Vaizen?" The anchorwoman asks. She quickly adds. "Provided of course, she is somehow allowed to do so. I mean she is the youngest ever to be-"

.

Lindy Harlaown, Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been watching the discussion from her office. She whistles.

"Whoa...I see where it's going."

She, too, has wondered where the leak came from. She knows now.

"You've pulled some dirty tick here, sir. Well done."

.

Back in the news studio, the former Adviser boasts Commander Yagami's prowess.

"Forget about her age. Forget about Riot Force 6 or Special Duty Section. Let's look at the recent facts alone. Yesterday Commander Yagami contained a corps strength invasion with just a single battalion."

"True. An impressive job." The news anchor admits.

"This morning, she had the balls to go against the entire enemy force with just three battalions. And all assessments indicate it would have worked!" This old man is proud. "I tell you, if anyone can bring an end to this invasion, it's lieutenant general Yagami."

The anchorwoman pulls out several holo-displays showing images of angry people gathering on the streets.

"I'm hearing there already is a campaign by the public; demanding we let our soldiers fight." She highlights a particular photo; a man is shouting something, holding up a large sign above his head. "Unchain the Princess. I like that...What do you think? Is it legally possible to-"

.

The current Bureau Security Adviser has seen enough. The other party has done their part of the deal. He makes a call to his secretary.

"He's done his part of the deal. Tell the boys to go easy on censoring his new book." He quickly adds. "But not the top-secret stuff, OK?"

.

Hayate has a mixed feeling about the whole thing. She's watching a news feed showing the main streets of Cranagan. Thousands of people have already gathered, shouting "Unchain the Princess." Public support is all good and all, but...

"This makes me look like I leaked our comm." She complains.

"Did you?" Reinforce quickly dodges an attempted smack on her head.

**#**

.

Teana barges into the Investigation Lab deep inside the Executive Office building.

"It wasn't her! The orbs-"

"Yes, Teana, I get it." The Senior Laboratory Operator quickly jumps up from her seat just in time to stop Teana from bumping into a delicate equipment set.

"It must have been one of those clones!" Teana is still excited. Fate is innocent, and she is happy. "Now, arrange me a jump to Vaizen." She demands.

The Lab Operator sighs and gets back to her seat.

"Look. One, I'm your friend, not your secretary. Do it yourself." She returns to whatever she was doing before Teana ran in. "Two, all non-military traffics are blocked. You can't go."

"Actually, I can." Teana gloats. "See? A wanted criminal and her clone gang going ham in Vaizen? That's our job."

The Lab Operator looks up from her work, annoyed.

"Technically, yes. Practically, no. What exactly can we do? Are you going to take a bunch of guys and fight the war yourself?"

"Hmm...I don't know." Teana scratches her head. Surely, her boss would know what needs to be done.

.

The Helios crew in quarantine are also watching the news.

"Precia Testarossa...that old hag is still alive!" Chrono can't believe. "This explains the state I found her in. Fate must have had realized it somehow."

"So, it was Al Hazard after all..." Professor Scrya trails off. His face turns pale. "Oh god, they were trampling all over the place!"

Captain Griffith Lowran shakes his head in disbelief.

"And that's the first thing you worry about?"

"Sorry." Yuuno apologizes sheepishly.

"OK, let's say it's Al Hazard." Chrono switches into his Naval Intelligence mode. "What the hell does Testarossa want? She wanted Al Hazard, she got Al Hazard. What more does she want?"

"Well, obviously Alicia is still dead." Yuuno shrugs. "If she had succeeded in reviving her daughter she would not have made all those-"

"No, that doesn't make sense." Chrono cuts Professor off. "Fate is the living proof cloning doesn't bring Alicia back. Testarossa should know this."

"I don't think she went from 'What do I do with all these girls' to 'Oh, right. I will invade Vaizen.'" Griffith suggests.

"It should be the other way around. She wants something from the Bureau and so made the clone army." Says Chrono. He thinks out aloud. "But why?" Precia Testarossa reaching Al Hazard should have been the end of her story; the mother and the ex-dead girl living happily ever after all by themselves. But of course, dead people cannot be brought back, so it would have been more of a mother and a dead girl living sadly ever after. Either way, two hundred thousand clone girls are not supposed to be featured at all. So why are they there?

"Could be out of grudge." Yuuno suggests. "Alicia is still dead and it's all Bureau's fault...that kinda thing."

"That hypothesis requires Testarossa giving up on her daughter." Chrono points out.

The news feed is now showing the people marching on the streets of various worlds.

"Look at that. Unchain the Princess." Griffith points at the display. "Commander Yagami can do anything with that kind of public support."

"Nah~" Chrono waves it off. "It's obviously the administration trying to get enough political backing. They are probably drafting up a new law or an amendment right now."

.

The pressure has been immense. Reinforce finally caved in and OKed an interview.

"-so, we are still waiting for a clear directive from the top." Reinforce, sitting on a tiny toy chair placed on Hayate's large desk, talks to the hologram face of the gray-haired news anchorwoman. She continues. "That makes it very difficult for us to set proper rules of engagement. Lieutenant general has no choice but to go extremely conservative end of the spectrum."

She quickly glances sideways. Hayate stays out of the view, immersed in reading the reports from Vaizen, occasionally sipping coffee from a mug.

"Thank you, Miss Reinforce." The anchorwoman nods. "Maybe we can have Commander Yagami herself next time?"

"Ah...that's..." Reinforce scratches her head. "She's still not very comfortable being on...hey, it was your show come to think of it."

The anchorwoman chuckles.

"Yes, indeed. We did fix our seats after that, but I still believe her skirt came undone on its own."

The news anchor ends the feed before Reinforce can protest.

**#**

.

"Are you done?" Asks Hayate. Reinforce nods.

"By the way, my skirt didn't come off on its own. It was the fucking chair."

"Alright, alright." The tiny fairy-like girl raises her hands in defeat.

Hayate fiddles with the comm and Signum's face appears before her.

"Signum, what exactly happened?" Hayate gets straight to the business, scrolling through the report displayed next to Signum's floating face.

"Why do we have casualties from a mission that didn't even kick off?"

Signum twitches. 'Oh boy, here it comes.'

"Do you really want to know?"

Hayate leans back in her swivel chair with her arms crossed. Signum sighs.

"We were about to pull out silently, but then Fate appeared out of nowhere. She tried to convince them to give up." Signum opts to go honest.

"Fate-chan again? Can somebody tie her down to a chair or something?" says Hayate, slightly irritated.

"But to be fair, commander, at that point you established the Vaizen situation is Executive Office's job." Signum reminds her senior officer. "It wasn't official yet, but still-"

"So, we can't really complain about an Enforcer getting in our way?"

"We got in her way, so to speak." Signum fidgets at the sight of Hayate's raised eyebrows. "Nanoha got involved, and then...she went berserk for some reason."

Hayate lights a cigarette, confused and stressed.

"And how did that result in our soldiers getting hurt? Did she attack ours?"

"Well, er...how do I say this...erm..." Signum is visibly uncomfortable delivering this information. "Nanoha and Fate started duking it out-"

Hayate sits up with her jaws dropped. Signum continues.

"And Nanoha's guys attacked Fate, which in turn led to Vaizen Air engaging them."

"What the..." Hayate can't believe what she is hearing.

"And the Alicia clones joined in." Signum goes on. "So, we had a three-way free for all fight right there. Vita and Subaru moved in to take some heat off of the flight mages..." She sighs and shrugs. "By the time I untangled this mess the damage was already done."

.

After hearing both Nanoha and Fate are OK and have somewhat reconciled, Hayate ends the comm in frustration. It is bad enough Fate's clone sisters are invading Vaizen, thanks to certain someone who sort of nudged the Bureau to fight it out. The last thing Hayate wants is Fate herself causing any more troubles as she pleases. Somebody has to keep Chief Enforcer in check. Hayate calls Teana.

"Hello, Hayate. Can I go to Vaiz-"

"Yes, yes." Hayate cuts Teana off. "I will have you authorized, but you have to promise me something."

Teana is listening.

"You keep Fate-chan in check. Don't let her go do silly things on her own, OK?" Hayate runs the sentence again in her head. "Don't you go do silly things with her either. Or better; just bring her back to the Office."

"Sure thing. Thank you." Teana then adds after a giggle. "Unchain the Princess!"

Hayate is embarrassed but doesn't hate it.

**#**

.

It's the afternoon in Vaizen, and a senior Alicia clone approaches the projected image of her mother standing in front of the gate. She presents a simple device and presses a button on it. A holographic map appears.

"We found it in one of the houses. This is the map you asked?"

Precia Testarossa's projection glances at the map.

"It is. Now locate the Terminal."

The girl fiddles with the holo-map, lost. Eventually, she gives up.

"Mother, we can't read."

The mother stands there in silence for a moment, questioning her own past decision regarding her girls' education.

"Never mind." She examines the map displayed in front of her. "We are here." She locates the Staging Dock and tells the girl to zoom out the map.

"There. Yes, that is the Interworld Terminal. So, it is still there, I see." She turns her eyes to the west. "How far have we progressed?"

"Not far, mother." The senior clone answers apologetically. "The Bureau soldiers are strong. This morning we almost got us all killed caught in a trap."

Dr. Testarossa scowls at her daughter.

"I need that terminal no matter what cost."

"Yes, mother. You will have the terminal in the next few days. Sisters and I are discussing how to fight better, and we already have some good ideas." The girl's tone shifts to an eager excitement.

"Good. I will send more girls." The mother offers. The senior girl bows and thanks her mother. More sisters will definitely be of great help.

"To west." Precia orders. "But do not test my patience for too long."

.

Precia Testarossa ends her inter-dimensional projection. She dips one hand into the gate, and raises the other in the air, channeling the magic Al Hazard offers. The gate sucks in the ambient magic, fortifying the pathway between Vaizen and Al Hazard, essentially turning the dark tunnel into an indestructible jump pad. Behind her, some thousand Alicia clones are standing with their staffs.

.

A Naval Intelligence Mission Control operator receives a call from one of the ships he oversees. He logs the call and runs to the Senior Mission Operator on the other side of the room.

"Report from our ships orbiting Vaizen. They detected a strong mana current flowing in the pathway."

The Senior Operator looks up from his console.

"Are they trying to cut down the travel time?"

The junior operator nods. "Most likely they are planning to send something to Vaizen. And quick."

The Senior Operator looks at the vacant seat next to him.

"Damn, I wish boss was here." He turns to his junior. "Can Sail Force intervene?"

"I don't think so." The junior man shakes his head. "All warships are ordered to stay away."

The Senior Operator grimaces. Nobody wants another Wolfram, that is for sure, but... He decides to call the Joint Task Force. Whatever is coming, at least it won't catch Commander Yagami off-guard.

.

The masked Alicia clones stream past their mother and into the gate. The strong mana current Precia pumped in launches the girls forward at an incredible speed; A horde of deadly mages hurled across the multiverse.

**#**

.

Teana steps out of a large travel gate that the Terminal operators have reserved for military use only. A large canvas hangs down from the glass ceiling, separating the gate from the long array of other interworld teleportation gates spaced inside this massive building. Teana stumbles few steps forwards, gets down on her fours, and throws up on Signum's boots.

"Yes, good evening to you, too." Signum shakes off Teana's lunch sprayed on her boots.

Teana quickly stands up, wiping her mouth with jacket sleeve.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry."

"I can't be mad." Signum shrugs. "Fate did warn me about this, but I forgot." She hugs Teana, an old friend. "Anyway, welcome to Vaizen."

When they first met Teana was an insecure teenage girl who was so conscious of her lack of talents and innate power compared to the other members of Riot Force 6. While Signum has been locked in her age forever Teana grew up to be one of the best Enforcers in the Office and has become the right hand of Chief Enforcer Harlaown.

"I didn't expect a general would come out in person to welcome me." Says Teana.

"I've had a very colorful day today." Says Signum with a weak smile. "Thought this would be a good change of pace."

Signum leads the Enforcer out of the arrival platform and into a spacious lobby packed full; tired people who evidently spent the last several days there sleeping on benches and floors. The huge mass of people extends out the building where countless makeshift tents have been set up in rows and columns covering the rolling plain as far as the eye can see. The noise is deafening. The two old friends wade their way through.

"This is just the tip of an iceberg. The evacuation still has a long way to go." Signum shouts over the noise. Helios bringing down the teleportation network in the east has created a bottleneck here at the Terminal. Teana surveys the people waiting for their turn in going through the gates. Some of them, bored of waiting, recognize Signum and her. After all these two are some big names within the Bureau.

"Who's taking care of these civilians?" Teana asks, waving back at a small boy.

"Your colleagues in the Vaizen Office," Signum points at an agent wearing the Executive Office uniform. A young lady in her early twenties, looking extremely tired but still carrying on with her task of keeping things in order and directing the people where they should go. She spots Teana and salutes. Enforcer Lanster salutes back and gives a thumbs up. Signum continues, shouting over the noise.

"But we are also committing whatever Vaizen Defense unit up and ready into this. We also have some specialists from the Disaster Recovery Corps, and they really know what they are doing it's impressive."

"We are diverting military resources?" Teana is surprised.

"Vaizen is still mobilizing." Signum shrugs. "So far they only have couple hundred men up and ready, so it's not like we are losing too much on the front line."

"But if I understood correctly you yourself have only three battalions?" Teana asks. Did this general really decline 'couple hundred men' when she herself had slightly less than a thousand soldiers up against, if Teana remembers correctly, over two thousand hostiles ranked double A on average?

Signum points at a squad of soldiers entering the lobby, each carrying a big crate. They spread out and start distributing packaged foods and water bottles.

"Look. These people are moms and pops and neighbors of the Vaizen soldiers. This really means something to everyone here."

They finally reach an exit and walk out of the building. A car is waiting for them. Its driver salutes the two ladies.

.

The car drives past several terminals and commercial buildings, makes a turn past a control point, and then onto a massive open flat space dotted with hangars here and there under the cool evening sky.

Signum points out the window at a large empty space.

"We had big passenger carriers taking off from here on the first day, but ever since Wolfram-"

Teana has spotted a small group of soldiers, each carrying a datapad, placing markers on the ground.

"Are they your people?" She asks.

Signum uses optics magic to check unit patches.

"They are from my two regiments. Getting the place ready before their buddies arrive."

Teana keeps her eyes on the soldiers as the car drives past them. She is digesting this bit of information.

"So, you and Subaru really are the only fighting force we have in Vaizen right now..."

"And Vita. And Nanoha." Signum adds the names.

The car stops in front of the hangar used as Rapid Response's HQ.

.

Major general Signum, ever so generous, has set up a small desk and a console for Fate. Chief Enforcer is in a call with someone and motions for the two ladies to wait.

"Alright, approved. Send me the paper, and I will sign the budget." Fate ends the call and turns to Teana.

"That was the Head of Firstraum Executive Office. He needed my special budget approval to handle the evacuee."

Signum summons a holo-table, reading the numbers.

"Firstraum...They are taking in some hundred thousand."

"Oh!" Teana quickly pulls out a memo from her datapad. "Yeah, he's been calling ever since the evacuation was issued." She deletes the memo.

"How about the Midchilda Office? They are taking in the bulk." Chief Enforcer inquires.

"Last I checked they are paying from their own reserve fund. Said they will ask for central money if needed." Teana answers, to which Signum whistles.

"Must be a real fat reserve they have. Thank god I have Agito doing all those money works."

Fate gives Signum an 'Oh, really?' look.

"Did you know Hayate goes over every single penny on the book?" Fate smirks at the sight of Signum's surprised face. "We were hanging out the other day, and I saw her whipping out a calculator and correcting the numbers herself." Fate shivers. "Let's just say there were lots of cussing and cursing."

"Oh...She never said anything to us!" says Signum, making a mental note to double-check on Agito's math in the future.

"Speaking of Hayate..." Teana changes the topic. "Boss, I have promised her that I will keep you in check. So, I need to know what your plan is."

"Yes, I, too, wish to know what Executive Office plans to do." Signum demands, too.

Fate thinks for a moment before answering.

"I can't plan anything unless I know what they want. One of them did tell me their goal is to reach Midchilda-"

"Midchilda? What for? And why invade Vaizen?" Teana interrupts with questions.

"They followed a wrong ship sailing to a wrong port." Signum gives a simpler version of the story. "That's why we have an invasion in Vaizen, not Midchilda."

"As for what they want...that I need to find out." Fate takes over. "I also need to know how same...or different they are from me, or to Alicia." At this point, she is just thinking out aloud. "What's their weakness? How do they think? How strong is their loyalty to mother?"

Teana turns to Signum.

"Would it be possible for your soldiers to capture a prisoner or two? Then maybe we can interrogate-" She trails off as Signum shakes head.

"It takes a considerable effort to kill just one of them. It would take even more efforts to capture one alive." But she has an alternative. "I do however have one dead Fate Harl-...I mean a dead Alicia clone in the fridge if that helps."

The two Enforcers brighten up. Signum smiles to Fate and continues.

"Subaru freaked out thinking she had killed you."

"Subaru? Kill me? Well..." Fate considers the possibility. "Maybe if she tried really really hard-"

"That's not the bloody point!"

.

Signum's soldiers have brought out the dead Alicia clone.

"Wow, she really does look the same." Teana observes, examining the body. The dead girl is surprisingly light and uncomfortably thin upon closer inspection; clearly, this clone girl was not fed very well when she was alive. "Except she's twice as thin and about half the age." She adds much to Fate's dismay.

"Sorry I'm a fat old hag." Fate taps on the remaining piece of mask that is still bolted onto the face. "What's with this mask?"

"Subaru broke it when she punched this kid in the face." Answers Signum. She nudges Teana. "Doesn't this mask thing remind you of the Mariage?"

"I think it's just a coincidence." Teana brushes it off. She touches the bolt and winces. "Why would they do this?"

"They are all wearing the same mask, so it must be some kind of an identity thing." Signum suggests. She, too, wears her uniform after all.

"I'm guessing mother can't stand the faces resembling Alicia." Fate answers from her own experience. "What's with this red paint?"

"Oh, they have big red X on the mask." Signum explains.

"I see..." Fate sighs. "It's a statement of rejection; You are not her, you will never be her...I mean Alicia." She is certainly very sad. "Even after all these years she still can't accept me as who I am... I mean us clones-"

Teana puts a hand on Fate's shoulder. She doesn't know what to say because she cannot imagine the pain of being rejected by one's own mother over and over again. About two hundred thousand times collectively.

"So, what's the plan?" Signum decides to change the topic. Fate needs something else to focus on.

"Teana, I want you to take her to our lab for a thorough autopsy." Fate hovers her hand over the dead body. "On top of that see if we can extract and separate mana signatures."

"What do you mean?" asks Teana.

"Mother specializes in borrowing external magic source for her magic-"

"I get it!" Signum immediately realizes what Fate is talking about. "If we somehow isolate the external input that was used in creating this clone-"

"Then we know what kind of fuel Precia Testarossa is burning?" Teana, too, gets it. Fate likes this analogy and nods. She doesn't expect much from the analysis, but still the more she knows the better.

**#**

.

It's late evening and Nanoha has been circling above the hill the entire day, keeping her distance from the Vaizen flight mages. She's just sent her squadron down for the evening chow and stays in the air solo, skipping her meal.

She fully understands what Fate is trying to achieve. Save them from doing stupid things so the clone sisters don't get themselves killed.

Nanoha feels cornered, boxed in. As long as she is ordered to fly the Vaizen sky, her duty comes first. If she decides to sit back with arms crossed, she has to watch her friends and colleagues die by the clone sisters' hands. Nanoha doesn't really have a choice. Whatever she chooses to do, or not do, she has to witness people die. Bird's eye view.

Nanoha has made her mind up. People dying in this conflict is inevitable. She can't help it; no matter how much she loves Fate, Nanoha can't prevent deaths in this war. Thus, she will do her best in helping Hayate end this war as quickly as possible, even if it means killing all Fate's sisters here in Vaizen. That at least saves the two hundred thousand girls who are supposed to be living in their world. Good girls. Fate said these are good girls. It is so because Fate said so. Good girls. Grateful to their mother for making them. Why did she even make them in the first place?

"No matter what you try, Alicia won't be back!" She wants to tell the old witch. Why doesn't the stupid woman get it? Is she that incapable of understanding the simplest and the most straightforward fact of the multiverse? Or is she refusing to accept it? Or is clinging onto the impossible hope the only thing that's left for her? What then would be the point in going on? Precia Testarossa should just shut the fuck up, accept Alicia is dead, and move on.

"If, for example, something happened to Vivio, I would just..."

Nanoha shuts herself up and shakes her head. What am I thinking? Of course, nothing is going to happen to Vivio so there is no point in thinking about what I'd do. I picked a bad example there, ha ha, silly me. Vivio is fine. I'll make sure nothing happens, just in case. But what if?

"Nothing is going to happen to Vivio!"

She yells into the empty sky.

But what if it did? What would I do? Would I be ready to accept it and go on with my life?

"Yes, of course, I'd..."

Nanoha shuts up again. Look, I'm talking to myself. She realizes thinking about these things is affecting her. She tries to focus on her task; Flying the war zone sky. Against Fate's clone sisters. Good girls. Girls who want their dead sister to wake up. OK, I kill them. As many and quickly as possible so Hayate wins the war quickly. But technically it's not a war because all Precia Testarossa wants is...

Nanoha shakes her head again. What the fuck am I doing?

.

Nanoha looks down, trying to focus on something else than thinking silly thoughts. She can see her squadron mingling and talking with their Vaizen counterparts as if nothing happened this morning. Nanoha sighs. She, too, has to sort it out with Bug Boy. Nanoha lands on the hill. Vita and Bug Boy immediately come over to her.

"Look who's here." The Vaizen Air's group leader stands there with his hands on his waist.

"Sorry about my guys this morning." Nanoha apologizes. "They overreact sometimes."

"That was totally messed up." Bug Boy scowls but relaxes immediately. "Though I'm rather pleased my people came out unhurt going against your crazies."

"Ha!" Nanoha scoffs. "My guys must have held back." She then relaxes, too. "Anyway, it won't happen again. I promise."

"Hey, don't be cheeky in my sky." The Vaizen group leader extends his hand. "Anyway, apology accepted. We cool?"

"We cool. Thanks." Nanoha shakes the man's hand.

"So, what exactly happened? Why was Fate here?" Vita asks, changing the topic. The Vaizen group leader is curious, too. Why did the two ladies start fighting each other? Nanoha sighs.

"OK, listen. Our enemy...they are all clones of Alicia Testarossa. Fate had somehow learned of our trap and wanted to save her 'sisters'." Nanoha makes the double quotes hand gesture. "I...er...disagreed."

Bug Boy throws his hands in the air.

"That's how you two settle a disagreement? If I did that with my wife..."

"Alicia Testarossa?" Vita is surprised. The Alicia?

"Precia Testarossa. Alicia Testarossa. And Fate Testarossa. You know the story?"

Of course, Vita knows Fate's origin story. But isn't the abusive mother supposed to be dead?

"Jeez..." Vita calls Subaru. "Subaru, come up here. You have to listen to this."

.

"Wow" Subaru does not know what to say. "Really? It's Executive Office's job? Then what the heck are we even doing out here?"

"Somebody's gotta stand between them and the civilians at the Terminal." Vita points out. "We can't just up and leave."

"This is fucked up." Bug Boy shakes his head. "We are just a meat shield."

"Orders are orders." Vita, as always, stands by her Princess. She, too, is not happy with the situation, though. "Spread the words to your men, Subaru." She tries to smile. "At least we are allowed to defend ourselves."

"The Office better come up with something really quick." Subaru grumbles, which makes Nanoha a bit uncomfortable. Subaru notices this.

"No, Nanoha-san, I don't mean like that." She frantically tries to take it back. "I'm sure Fate-san already has everything under control."

"Look, madam!"

The officers are interrupted by a nearby soldier, who points at the road running inland. A single headlight travels down the road under the dusk sky, approaching the hill from the west. As they watch the lone traveler coming closer and closer, the division communication magic carries Agito's announcement to everyone.

"All units, and intel from Naval Intelligence. They detected a significant modification of the dimensional travel path. We think more hostiles will arrive."

"Oh boy..." The soldiers in the area sigh collectively.

**#**

.

Subaru's assistant is waiting at the foot of the high hill where the road starts to wind around. Punchkid has set up its command post there, and the men and women are busy fortifying the reverse slope of the hill.

An army-issue motorbike comes to a full stop. Teana gets off her ride and takes the helmet off. She has begged her boss 'Only a couple of hours, please? Pretty please?' and got approval. Signum, ever so friendly, has offered the bike. "It should be a good ride." She said.

"Welcome to Punchkid, Enforcer." The assistant takes the helmet and guides Teana to the command vehicle. "It's an honor to meet the famous Doorkicker in person."

"Doorkicker? That's new." Teana comments. She knows the public calls her by many names, but Doorkicker is something new to her.

"You know what they say; When Fate Harlaown comes gently knock on your door you better be sorry." The assistant tells the urban fable. "But if you are not sorry by then, you will definitely be when Teana Lanster kicks down your door."

"Nah~ it's all exaggerated." Teana brushes it off, but she finds the little tale to be generally true. Fate, always soft-hearted, usually offers the one last chance. When an investigation, that is big enough and worthy of Fate's attention, reaches a point where it becomes obvious there will be an inevitable show-down or an armed raid, Chief Enforcer would casually waltz alone into the den of hardened criminals. There she would deliver her ultimatum, with a kind smile and firm but polite suggestions. Most of the time it works out, but in the rare cases where it doesn't, Fate would walk out and tap on Teana's shoulder. Teana, always the one to be kicking doors down leading her agents, would then unleash the wrath of Executive Office.

With a sudden chill running down her spine, Teana senses a great danger. She braces for an impact, just in time as Subaru jumps on Teana and gives a bone-crunching hug.

"Teana!"

"Subaru, you are killing me!" Teana almost falls. "I just came to say hello. Gotta go back to Midchilda tonight."

Subaru, still clinging on Teana, is not having it.

"Aw, you rode all this way just to say hello? At least have some tea."

The assistant takes the cue and puts the kettle on.

.

Zafira sits in the shadow cast by a large boulder about two kilometers south of the small town, a good place to observe the road running to the industrial zone about fifty kilometers down the road. If the girls head that way, Zafira won't miss them. At least that's what the textbooks would say, but then again, these clone girls don't seem to value the smoothly flat solid surface to walk on. They just either walk or fly everywhere, but obviously, prefer the former method of travel. That has been puzzling Zafira and the staff back in the division HQ. Why are they so insistent on walking when everyone knows how to fly? One of Signum's tactical staff has hypothesized maybe the enemy's homeworld has an environment that does not permit long distance flights, and the habit from back home just carried over to Vaizen.

A whispered voice from the comm interrupts Zafira's contemplation. It's a small team laying low just outside the town.

"Captain, a major activity in the residential area. They seem to be moving out."

Zafira cranes his neck over the boulder. He whispers into the comm.

"I can't quite see from here. How major?"

"Almost everyone, sir." His man whispers back.

"Oh, no." Zafira quickly opens another comm to the men near the Staging Dock. "Staging, report."

A different voice whispers back.

"Nothing significant, captain. Staging Dock is quiet."

Zafira ends both comms. He bobs his head above the boulder and intensely watches the silhouette of the town engulfed in the late evening darkness. With a bit of concentration, he picks up the distant sounds of marching footsteps and occasional shouts carried over by the evening breeze. He sees two or three hundred or so small silhouettes rising in the air, hovering, slowly drifting towards inland westward; indicating the flying girls are advancing in sync with the sisters below.

**#**

.

"Technically it's not our job." Hayate says to Signum's floating face hovering over the desk. Both generals are visibly frustrated. "But it pains me to lose that hill."

"That hill controls the crossroad and the surrounding open plain. It's also a good staging platform for us." Signum tries to persuade her boss. "If they swing south from there to the coastal industrial zone we will have a considerable difficulty dealing with it without that hill."

"I know."

They stare at each other for a while.

"So, you insist on holding the position." Hayate observes.

"Let's just say I want to be in a better position when the order to counter attack comes." Signum insists, but she knows Hayate is not allowed to order a counter attack. She continues nevertheless.

"Look, I don't know why, but they are going west. As long as we are in their way...I'm sure we are allowed to defend ourselves, yes?"

Signum notices Hayate is still reluctant. She presses further.

"Assuming they continue their course west, the next spot that remotely resembles a passable defensive position is another twenty kilometers inland from here. Farther, if I want a better spot. Do you want to give them all that space for free or not?"

Hayate is irritated. Sometimes Signum can be as nagging as Reinforce.

"That's not the issue here." Hayate points out. "As they say, I'm chained by the rules. We have no justification to be in their way. We will be hampering Executive Office's operation." She buries the head in her hands. It would be nice if the Bureau simply ordered Hayate to pull out, but no, not a single directive has come down her way. Hence, she is stuck in limbo. She wants to defend the hill with tooth and nails if it comes to that, but her troops no longer have a reason to be there in the first place. No, actually nothing has become official yet, so there is some room to wiggle around a bit...only if there is something that would solidify the justification of her actions...

"The Office?" Signum scoffs. "No matter how capable Teana is, I doubt she alone can do anything about the girls here."

"What do you mean?" Hayate looks up.

"Teana is on the hill. She went to say hello to Subaru-"

Hayate slams on the desk.

"Why the hell you tell me this just now?"

Signum silently studies the young commander's face. It's flustered. There are signs of excitement and hope. Good. Looks like Princess has come up with an idea.

.

Subaru and Teana have been chatting and drinking teas when Signum makes an announcement over the division's communication magic.

"Punched and Anvil, Recon reports the enemy is advancing towards your position."

"Roger." Vita's voice acknowledges. "What are our rules of engagement?"

"Self-preservative measures only. This whole thing is technically Executive Office's job." Signum answers matter of factly.

"Then what are we doing here? Can we even engage?" Subaru shoots into the comm.

From far west of Punchkid's position, Signum smirks.

"Let me talk to Teana first."

"I'm here." Teana speaks into Subaru's communication magic.

"Good. Enforcer Lanster, I understand you have a bunch of suspicious armed people heading your way."

Teana exchanges glance with Subaru. What the hell is Signum talking about? The Rapid Response division commander continues.

"I happen to have my units in your vicinity. Do you require assistance?"

Subaru makes an O-face first, then brightens up. She punches the air, jumping, mouthing 'Say yes. Say yes!' Teana leans into Subaru's comm.

"Erm...yes, thank you. That'd be very helpful."

"Good. We will provide assistance as long as the Office takes the responsibility, and Princess doesn't end up court-martialed."

Teana scowls. What the heck did I just walk into?

"Do you understand?" Asks Signum. Teana nods.

"The Enforcer on the scene understands." Subaru answers instead.

"Good!" Signum sounds happy. "All units, you heard the conversation. We will- Fate, stop! Get back-!"

.

Signum runs out the hangar after Fate, but it is too late. Huffing and puffing from the sudden dash, Signum watches the tiny spec of Fate flying away, trailing golden mana residues in the dark sky.

"Damn it!"

She stomps the ground a few times and returns to the hangar. She gets back on the comm.

"Sorry about that." She starts to issue the new rules. "Basically, if the Office has something equivalent, you are free to use it in self-defense. Otherwise...just don't."

"That limits us to Strike rifles!" Subaru's upset voice fills the hangar. Signum ignores this protest and continues.

"Precision single target weapons only. No area attack and that includes the flight mages, too."

"What? No~ Where's the fun in that?" Bug Boy is upset, too.

.

Signum ends the comm and sits back in her seat, trying to enjoy the precious few minutes of peace before all hell breaks loose on that distant hill. Unfortunately, Agito has to interrupt.

"Ginga is almost done assembling at the Midchilda gate. She will start jumping within the next hour."

Signum does quick scheduling in her head. It would take some hours before all of Ginga's subunits finish the travel and re-assemble here at the Terminal. Colonel Nakajima's regiment will be ready to roll out not long after midnight.

.

"Ginga will start jumping soon. Midchilda's 2nd squadron is scheduled for around dawn." Reinforce reports. Hayate nods and Reinforce starts working on paperwork, sitting cross-legged on the large commander's desk, furiously typing into her device on her tiny lap.

Hayate is looking out the bright lit city of Cranagan through the window, thinking. There's a war going on next door, but Midchilda does not seem to be affected at all. 'What if it was Midchilda?' She shivers at the thought.

The two battalions and the two air squadrons have to survive the night on their own, with their fighting capacity severely limited by the recently 'discovered' legal constraints. 'Will Signum commit Ginga's regiment?' It's down to her decision really; how long does Hayate want to hold that mound of dirt and rocks? How fast should she give grounds and how much?

"But that place is just so damn useful!"

Reinforce is about to respond but realizes Hayate is talking to herself. She gets back to her paperwork but looks up again upon smelling a freshly lit cigarette. Reinforce pushes the Hello Kitty ashtray and it slides across the desk, stopping just at a corner where Hayate can easily reach. The tiny lady immerses herself back in the world of number crunching and reports writing, oblivious to the fact that Hayate will later secretly recalculate and correct all the numbers.

The commander of Capital Defense Corps is deep in thoughts. Naval Intelligence has informed her of the possibility of more clone girls coming. Vaizen gates are clogged up by the still-on-going evacuation, and the efforts to keep things in order and the people fed and cared for is eating up resources that could have gone to help Signum. Three days are too short of a period to base a judgment, but the mobilization rate across the Bureau worlds has not been up to Hayate's expectation, despite Lindy's best efforts from the JCS side. Either Capital Defense is too quick, or the rest of the Armed Forces are too slow.

At this rate, Hayate knows, she will reach the point where her own force preservation outweighs the strategic value of holding good positions. 'When will it be?' Hayate wonders. No matter. She has to be ready for it. How well she balances the time gained for the Bureau versus grounds given will determine the fate of Vaizen, provided, of course, that she is allowed to fight her war.


	8. 8: Anvil and Punchkid

The sun has finally gone down. From the top of the hill, Vita can just make out a large patch of black overflowing the plain laying in the dark. She employs optics magic and surveys the marching clone girls. They are about halfway to the hill.

"Can I have a view from the sky?"

Vita requests over the comm.

"Hang on. Let me go higher." Answers Nanoha's voice, and soon a holo-display pops up before Vita. It shows the advancing Alicia clones viewed from high up in the air above the hill, enhanced by optics magic. Something is different…

"You see this, Anvil?" Nanoha tries to confirm what she is seeing is real. Vita grits her teeth.

"Fuck you, Subaru!" Vita screams into the comm. "They are copying your assault formation!"

"I told you they do that!" Subaru's voice protests. "Besides, what do you mean MY formation? It's the standard-"

"Heads up." Bug Boy interrupts the bitching. "I see more air supports." He tries to count the dots hovering above the mass of bodies below.

"Jeez, we are going to have our hands full, White Devil."

Vita turns her head to check on Teana by her side. The Enforcer on the scene seems rather nervous. Teana notices Vita's eyes and gives a weak smile.

"I, too, have been in many life and death situations, but…not at this scale."

Vita tries an assuring smile. 'Teana will be alright,' the little major thinks. After all, she did train this lady herself many years ago.

.

The very forward group of the Alicia sisters stops and hesitates. They are at the spot where that very intimidating lady knight drew the line this morning. The girls look at each other's masked face, hoping someone else would be the first to cross the line and meet the promised wrath.

"Halt!"

Suddenly a woman's voice booms in the air, surprising everyone.

"This is Enforcer Teana Lanster of Executive Office. I order you to turn back." The voice rolls on the dark plain. "Further approach will be considered as aggression on Bureau's servicemen. I will respond by deadly force."

A senior masked clone makes up her mind. She steps forward, crossing the arbitrary line. She waits some seconds, but nothing happens. Her sisters let out a collective sigh of relief.

Then with a whistling sound, a single cannon shot lands about fifty meters before the brave senior clone, spraying muds and pebbles on the girl.

"That was the final warning." The Enforcer's voice echoes again. "Turn back or I will open fire!"

.

Teana turns to Vita.

"But to be honest they aren't breaking any laws right now. I can't justify-"

A volley of explosion magic arcs high across the air and lands on the front slope of the hill; not as powerful as that of a Strike howitzer round, but each shot still deadly. Another volley lands somewhat higher than the previous one. Then the front slope erupts in continuous explosions as the Alicia clones walk the barrage up the incline to the hilltop. Vita's soldiers dug in on the front slope hunker down and endure the carnage.

On the hilltop, Teana ducks behind a wall of sandbags surrounding Anvil's command post, coming eye to eye with major Vita standing upright before her.

"Shooting up an Enforcer. That's breaking how many laws?"

"Right. OK. I hereby formally request you and your battalion who-" An explosion nearby rains dirt down on Teana. Vita does not even flinch. "Who happen to be present in the vicinity…" Teana fumbles through the formality. "Erm…to assist me in apprehending the…suspects? Yes, suspects."

Vita produces a datapad before Teana's face.

"Hang on, let me get that on record. Say that again."

While Teana goes over the sentence again, Vita gets on the local communication magic.

"Guys, don't forget what the division commander said. We don't want to send Princess to jail."

She glares down the open plain before her. The explosions from the enemy barrage illuminate the area with deafening booms while her soldiers dug in on the hill brave the deadly magics exploding everywhere.

"Teana?" Vita turns to the Enforcer.

"Right." Teana hands over the datapad. "Engage as you see fit, please."

"Thank you, Teana." Vita appreciates Teana sticking her neck out for the soldiers on the hill. Now on paper Enforcer Teana Lanster is in charge. "Now get down the hill and stay with Subaru. It's safer down there."

Teana hurries down the back slope. Soon, the Alicia clones are in range and they start firing more direct magical javelin attacks. The soldiers on the hill return fire, and the area is lit up by beams of deadly magic flying both directions.

The airborne Alicia clones are seen approaching from high above. Major Vita looks up as thirty or so flight mages ascend diagonally in an interception course. The flights of the two squadrons diverge, and the invaders split up in response.

.

The Bureau flight mages engaged in dogfights are clearly outnumbered about ten to one, but the doctrine and training prevail. An eager clone girl would chase an Air Armament Service mage from behind, only to expose her rear to the target's wingman. The sky is filled with brilliant explosions and accompanying smokes. Colorful lines are haphazardly drawn as deadly magics are exchanged and the mages trail sparkling mana residues.

The flying mages from both sides have strong enough barriers to withstand half a dozen good hits, any single hit of which would otherwise have been fatal to a regular Ground Armament Serviceman. Nevertheless, a barrier would eventually shatter, and the unfortunate soul would get caught in a vulnerable state; resulting in blood and exploded gore raining down on the battlefield far below.

Nanoha, on the other hand, is strong enough to penetrate a target's barrier with a single hit, but she is being focused hard. The Alicia clones are for some reason determined to kill her in particular. Being constantly chased and having to dodge multiple attacks coming from all directions, she is not able to rake in kills as fast as she would like to.

She outmaneuvers a group of four enemies chasing her, turning sharply and diving through the clones, mutilating three as she blitzes through. An Alicia clone zips past before her, chasing a Bureau mage. Nanoha whacks and bursts the passing enemy before maneuvering to finish off the one she left alive. Before she can even regain her breath, another batch of clone girls closes in fast.

Although equipped with superior skills and teamwork, the two Bureau squadrons are gradually being overwhelmed by the sheer number of the enemy in the sky and are forced to change their stance. The defending flight mages would peel away, diving after and intercepting those trying to attack the hill, which in turn leads to another chaotic dogfight.

Some Alicia clones would shake off the Bureau mages and head down to the hill, only to be met with a stream of fatal magic attacks fired from the hill. Despite all the efforts an air to ground attack would get through occasionally, each time obliterating a couple of dug in holes along with the soldiers in them.

**#**

.

"Major, 3rd company reports an enemy attempt at maneuvering north." Vita's assistant reports. "They've re-positioned to intercept but need a little help."

Fortunately, Vita has plenty of reserves in her hands.

"Move down a Raptor company. Secure 3rd's flank."

The assistant immediately goes to instruct the combat droids. Vita surveys the firefight happening down the plain before the front slope. She has to hold herself back from calling in her light cannon platoon to pulverize the exposed enemy. She cusses. Even simply coordinating all the vehicle-mounted weapons would be enough to decimate these clone girls. She shakes head. Vita has to focus on managing the job with the given constraints.

"Punchkid, your status?" Vita decides to check on Subaru down and behind Anvil.

"We are up and ready. I can swing wherever you need."

"Good. I've intercepted a flanking maneuver to our north. Be ready to move out in case they spill over."

Vita ends the comm, feeling somewhat relieved. She can count on Subaru to watch her back.

.

A group of senior Alicia clones has gathered, laying side by side flat on their bellies. They watch the fight happening before them.

"Something is different." One of them observes.

"They are not using their big strong magic." Another one points it out. "You know, from their cars."

Another one points above.

"And the flying ones aren't using their rock blasting magic either."

The girls run their eyes up the hill. Whatever the reason the Bureau soldiers are not fighting with their full strength. 'We can push them off' the girls are in a mutual agreement.

A magical mouth appears in front of a senior clone, relaying some information that the other seniors cannot hear over the noise. The girl turns to her peers.

"Sisters got stopped." She points at the northern foot of the hill. "I think we made the turn too close to the soldiers."

"Let's try the other side but make a wider arc." The senior girl with the red ribbon on her head suggests, drawing a wide half-circle in the empty air with her hand. Having successfully led the sisters into the southern part of the town yesterday, this particular clone has become a big advocate of flanking maneuvers and crossfires. "We will be able to hit them from behind." She adds.

Another senior sister points straight ahead.

"Why not just charge up the hill? We can make it."

"No. Look at them. They have better shots on us than we have on them." The red ribbon girl shakes her head. "Yes, they are weaker than yesterday, but we will still lose too many sisters."

"But we are supposed to get to the place called Terminal!" The impatient sister shouts over the noise. "Why do we even fight here?"

"But we can't just ignore them here! What if they go to the portal?" The red ribbon girl shouts back. The sister has had enough. She half gets up.

"You girls go ahead push them off the hill. Protect the portal. I'm flying to the Terminal."

She summons a set of magical ears and shouts into them.

.

The soldiers have spotted a significant number of the enemy heading south. The assistant promptly reports to Vita.

"They are swinging wide this time, major. To the south."

"Damn it!" Vita cusses and gets on the comm, calling Subaru. "Punchkid, the enemy is trying to hook around my far right. Can you spare a company or two?"

"No worries. I'm on it." Subaru replies.

Satisfied, Vita calls Captain Mondial.

"Erio, Punchkid is sending out her boys to cover my right. Move down and link them up with us."

After receiving an acknowledgment from the young captain, Vita cranes her neck to see down the reverse slope. A company of armored personnel carriers depart Subaru's staging area and run along the foot of the hill, heading to challenge the invaders on the move. Vita can see Captain Mondial's soldiers spreading out and taking positions to prevent the enemy from getting in between Punchikid's company and the hill. She notices a group of Punchkid soldiers on the reverse slope, busy with shovels and sandbags and…logs? 'What is Subaru doing?' Vita wonders.

**#**

.

The battle for the hill goes on for hours. The mass of Alicia clones has closed in and molded itself onto the Bureau's foremost positions. Their pressure spreads along the defense, threatening to spill over to exposed flanks. Vita responds by committing Raptors and Subaru's units, extending the contact surface where meats are burnt, and bones are shattered; the men and women and the combat droids would rush to take positions, bringing the clones' attempts to go around to stalemates as best as they could.

The airborne invaders have changed their approach; splitting up in smaller groups and attacking the Rapid Response soldiers along the defensive line all at the same time. The Bureau flight mages, lacking numbers, are only able to cover limited sections of the sky at a time, and the lack of air coverage is taking the toll on the soldiers fighting down below.

.

"Punchkid was right. These girls are adapting." Vita comments.

"But became predictable to some degree…at least on the ground." Her assistant observes. Vita nods. She, too, has noticed the subtle change. Instead of charging in like mad, a clone girl would methodically alternate between dashing and shooting her magical javelins in bursts from behind a cover; something all Bureau soldiers are thoroughly trained to deal with.

"Of course. They are mimicking us, but they lack the substance."

A call from Punchkid interrupts Vita from further discussing this interesting topic.

"Anvil, be advised I've just committed my last reserve unit."

Vita grimaces. That means Subaru has no more units to dispatch.

"Let's shrivel up a bit." Subaru suggests over the comm.

"You are right. We've spread a bit thin." Vita concurs.

The two Rapid Response battalions re-position their units, pulling them inward to form a slightly curved line facing the enemy.

In the meantime, the defenders dug in on the front slope have been pushed back to the ridge up the hill; The clone invaders are now swarming on the slope, fighting an uphill battle. Those who dare to expose themselves out of cover are met with focused fire from the ridge above, instantly disintegrating on the spot. The invaders opt to rush in numbers, a small distance at a time, from cover to cover. The Raptor droids are better at managing synced shots than their human counterparts, downing the single target they collectively select squad by squad, but the clones are relentless, running, dashing, and crawling the steep incline to the next cover, slowly but steadily closing the distance to the ridge.

A status report comes in from the northern foot of the hill. The units there are low on mana.

"They can't maintain the position much longer, major." The assistant reports. Vita orders them to pull back, to consolidate her defense. She gets on the comm.

"Punchkid, I'm giving away my left shoulder. I'm sorry."

"Roger that…but I thought the north was secured?" Subaru replies. Vita can sense a slight disappointment in Subaru's voice.

.

"God damn it!" Subaru cusses as she ends the comm.

"What's happening?" Asks Teana from behind.

Subaru points to the northern foot of the hill.

"We are giving away that side. Right when I don't have any more units to spare." She shakes her head. "That means they can go up the hill from there, but they can also come around attack here directly."

She tells the soldiers around the command post to get ready for an enemy attack coming around the hill.

"If we give ground here, they get free access to Anvil's ass!" Subaru informs her soldiers. Then she does a double-take.

"Teana, what are you still doing here?"

"It's my show, remember?" Teana points out. "You are…assisting?"

Subaru pulls her hair out and stomps on the ground.

"No! This place is too dangerous!" She turns to her assistant. "Ready her bike. Get her out of here."

The young lieutenant grabs Teana's arm and starts to 'lead' her away towards her motorbike.

"Madam Enforcer, this way, please."

"No! I'm not going-"

Teana's protest is interrupted by a sudden explosion. She instinctively puts up a barrier but is thrown back hard against the Punchkid's command vehicle.

Once the ringing inside her head is gone and the vision is cleared, Teana tries to stand up, groaning. Her entire body aches, but fortunately, she is not hurt. Smoke and dust settle down, and she finds Subaru kneeling beside her dead assistant on the ground, his head missing. The headless body is twitching as the nerves and muscles have lost their commander. Blood is pumping out of the exposed neck stump in sync with the fading heart.

Subaru looks up and Teana follows the eyes. A small group of masked invaders is ascending to make a downward turn for another attack run. The Punchkid is furious. She glares at the enemy mages.

"Nanoha-san!" Subaru curses through gritted teeth. "Why are they here?!"

The Alicia clones pass over the hill this time, weaving through streams of anti-air magic, raining down deadly spells on Vita's position. They almost make it out safe, but the Vaizen Air squadron flies in out of nowhere, and a chaotic dogfight ensues yet again in the sky above the hilltop.

Punchkid command post staff rush to their boss to check if she is alright. They stop at the sight of their colleague's headless body. Teana silently watches as Subaru covers the dead body with her uniform jacket. After a quick prayer, the major stands up.

"Teana, now is the time you get the hell out of here."

Subaru's eyes follow Teana's finger pointing at the motorbike, which is all blown up to pieces. She throws her angry eyes to the sky again.

"God damn it!"

Teana, too, looks up again. The Midchilda flight mages and their famed leader are nowhere to be seen.

"Where is Nanoha?" She asks no one in particular. Subaru has the same question and gets on the comm.

"White Devil, this is Punchkid. Where are you?"

No reply. Subaru tries again.

"White Wing, where are you?"

Finally, Nanoha's stressed voice crackles out of the communication magic.

"Sorry, Punchkid. Look to your far right. To the south. I'm rather busy right now."

.

Nanoha is being chased by about fifty enemy mages throwing themselves at her from all directions.

"This is ridiculous!"

Midchilda Air's 1st squadron is trying to get in the way and peel the enemy off their leader but with little success. The Bureau mages manage to down one or two invaders from time to time, but the hunt continues.

"This is over-commitment on a single target! What about their mission?" Nanoha laments.

.

The impatient senior clone has gathered enough sisters. About two hundred of them. She is waiting for the go sign as her peers have persuaded her to wait for the right time.

She is assessing her sisters' progress. The Bureau soldiers are fully occupied. The mages in the air are pushed to their very limits, and the flying devil, especially the flying devil, has been driven far away to irrelevance. Her path west is clear.

"Are you sure about this?" The red ribbon girl asks once again. "You are taking many sisters with you." 'The girls I need here' she decides not to add.

"The Bureau soldiers are tied down here. I think I have a good chance at the Terminal." The senior clone answers hopefully.

"You be careful. We don't know what's waiting there." The red ribbon girl hopes for the best. She surveys the battlefield.

"Now should be good. Go."

.

"Looks like you are the mission, madam." One of her flight mage comments, watching Nanoha shoot and kill an Alicia clone with a single magic discharge.

"See? That's why they hate you…"

The flight mage trails off, stunned at the dreadful sight of some two hundred or so masked girls rising up in the air. The blob ignores everything else and flies straight towards inland westward.

"What the…"

"All flights, after them!" Nanoha orders, but the Midchilda squadron cannot break free of the swarm. The masked girls, as if they have been waiting for a cue, dive on the White Devil all at once.

**#**

.

It's midnight, and a mass of soldiers and armored vehicles are gathered at a vast empty space in front of Signum's hangar. Men and women rush to and from a full Colonel, a woman in her mid-thirties, who has a striking resemblance to Subaru. The Colonel is receiving reports and giving instructions.

Major General Signum steps out of the hangar with Agito tagging along. The Colonel gives a solid salute to her superior officer.

"Welcome to Vaizen, Ginga. Status?" The division commander returns the salute.

"Major General, there is some stuff still in transit, but overall my regiment is ready to roll out on your orders." Colonel Ginga Nakajima, in charge of one of Signum's regiments, stands to attention. Signum surveys the soldiers and she is pleased.

"Your sister and Vita are under attack about 100km from here. It's a matter of time before they are completely surrounded." She informs Ginga.

"That bad?" Ginga asks, worried.

"I thought I could pull it off." Signum shakes her head. "It's proven to be tougher than I expected."

Ginga nods.

"Is that something to do with our legal situation?" She immediately identifies the problem. Signum nods with a sigh.

"Exactly. We are fighting with our hands tied." She gestures to Agito, who pulls out the map of Vaizen. Signum continues.

"That applies to you, too, Ginga, so I don't see much point throwing you at the hill." She points at some point on the map. Signum has decided to pull Punchkid and Anvil off the hill, and now requires a safe home for Subaru and Vita to pull back to.

"This spot is about 70km east from here. The open plain roughly ends there, and the terrain favors us with good chokes and reasonable high grounds." Signum lets Ginga know where she wants 1st regiment placed. Ginga studies the map.

"Where is Subaru holding up?" Punchkid's big sister asks. Agito points at the hill on the map. Ginga studies the map some more.

"I see…That really is a good position. Shame we are giving it up." She then runs her finger down the map, to the south of the hill. "They will get free access to the south, Major General. The industrial-"

"Yes, I know." If they go south, Signum would definitely want to launch an intercept mission and hit the enemy on the move from the side, but with the current constraints in place, there is nothing much she can do. In fact, she is not sure whether she will be permitted to send her troops on such offensive.

"Nothing much we can do." Signum sighs again. "The priority now is to preserve our strength until the lawmakers unchain our Princess."

Ginga nods sympathetically. She straightens up and gives a crisp salute.

"I'll report in once I set up in position. Please tell Subaru to hang in there."

With that, colonel Nakajima's regiment starts rolling out of the Teleportation Terminal facility, heading east far away.

As Signum watches the soldiers leave, she is startled by the siren going off. At first, she is confused. Air raid? Here?

**#**

.

"What's going on?" asks Signum entering her HQ. A staff rushes to the commanding officer and reports.

"Major general, airborne inbound. Two hundred or so heading straight this way."

Signum's face turns pale. What the hell is Nanoha doing?

"How did they get through?"

"Our flight mages are too busy on the hill. They can't intercept, madam!"

Signum thinks for a bit. She has to act quick. There is no way she can evacuate the civilians in time.

"I want the Terminal security layout."

Agito immediately summons a map showing the Interworld Teleportation Terminal and its surroundings, several locations are highlighted; security checkpoints, guard posts, and more importantly the remote-controlled static anti-air guns scattered around.

"I want barriers on the passenger terminal. Alert all units in the facility." She shouts to her staff officers. "Midchilda and Vaizen wings are to focus on the current task. We deal with the inbound ourselves!"

.

Hayate listens to Signum's hologram face with a concerned expression.

"-so I'd like to request Reinforce help me out." Signum gets to the point.

"Sure. Request granted." Hayate nods. She doesn't really have any other options.

Reinforce takes over communication.

"Signum, hook me up to the Vaizen net. I will take it from there." The little admin of Book of Darkness says.

Signum's face now looks relieved.

"Thank you. I'm counting on you, Reinforce."

.

Colonel Nakajima's regiment comes to a halt. They haven't gone too far when Agito's call came in. Sitting inside her command vehicle, Ginga orders through the comm.

"All units, we will shortly have two hundred or so airborne targets passing above our heads. Shoot them down!"

.

Signum bites her fingernails, nervously watching the swarm of red dots moving west on a large hologram map of Vaizen.

"They've just passed Caledfwlch Factory. No attack reported." Agito reports.

The HQ lets out a sigh of relief.

Ginga is also setting up her anti-air guns on the road.

"That should help a bit." Agito comments.

Signum just nods. She is thinking. 'Where are they targeting?' She looks at the map again. A little bit more to the west of the Terminal, there sits the capital city, Vaizen's heart. 'But didn't Fate say their goal is Midchilda?'

"I'm in the network. Taking gun controls." Reinforce's voice interrupts Signum's thoughts. A few seconds tick by and Reinforce gets on the comm again. "I've taken control. Give me their vectors."

Agito quickly relays the tactical feeds to her counterpart in the neighboring world.

.

Reinforce is sitting cross-legged on the commander's desk. In front of her are several dozen small holo-displays each showing the Vaizen sky. There also is a large holo-map of Vaizen. On it are many dots scattered centered around the Terminal. Several dozens of those in the path of the incoming attack are highlighted glowing red.

"I will start firing when in effective range."

Reinforce informs her colleagues in Vaizen. Signum's voice tells her to wait for a moment.

"I want to clear with Princess first. Are we allowed to shoot AA guns before they open fire?"

Hayate has been chain-smoking ever since informed of the incoming airborne hostiles. She is standing but leaning onto a corner of the desk, watching Reinforce doing her job.

"The civilians gathered at the Terminal are in immediate danger. Do what you must do, but remember this applies to this particular occasion only." She gives Signum a one-time free pass.

"Engaging!" As if on cue Reinforce shouts excitedly.

Scattered around in Vaizen, several dozens of remote-controlled static anti-air guns swivel around, pointing barrels to the night sky.

.

The clone girls have flown deep inland, and up to now, it has been quite uneventful. They remain alert regardless. One of the girls squints her eyes and surveys the pitch-black horizon to the west.

"We should see it soo-"

The masked clone explodes mid-sentence. The leading senior clone is taken aback. The air is suddenly saturated with explosions. Some are lucky and survive, losing their strong barriers as a price. The weaker ones are torn to pieces.

"Keep going! We are almost there!"

The senior clone tries to rally her sisters, but she herself is almost knocked out by an explosion on her barrier. The shot came from below. She looks down and sees columns of armored vehicles spraying the air with deadly magic attacks. She clenches her teeth, and powers through. The group speeds up and puts a good distance from the vehicles, but they are still being shot at from god knows where.

.

"Wow, how can they be still alive?" says Reinforce, remotely operating several dozen guns simultaneously.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself." Hayate observes.

"Rest of the corps are not allowed to fight at their full strength." Reinforce shrugs. "But here I am... with these big guns. Of course, I'm enjoying it."

"Hang in there, Reinforce! Don't go back to the dark side!" Hayate shouts jokingly, but she quickly switches to a more serious tone. "Just don't forget those are real lives you are deleting."

.

The senior Alicia clone leading the air incursion spots a large pool of lights illuminating the massive structures forming the Interworld Teleportation Terminal complex.

"There! That must be it!"

She turns her head to check on her sisters. She has lost more than half the girls on the way, and the air surrounding them is still full of deadly explosions. At this rate, there will not be enough sisters by the time they reach the Terminal. Nevertheless, she has to press on. Mother wants this place, she will deliver the Terminal. She rallies the girls once again.

"We are almost-"

She stops midair. The girls stop, too. About a kilometer ahead of them, in the otherwise pitch-black sky, there floats a red flame at about the same altitude as the clone sisters. A sister nearby shouts.

"That's her!"

The girls panic. They have, after all, crossed the line, to which wrath was promised. The clone girls are still being shot at by Vaizen's air defense system controlled by Reinforce. The senior Alicia clone realizes they are sitting ducks stopped here like this.

"She is the last obstacle! Attack!"

She charges forward. The girls, inspired, let out battle cries and follow their sister. They fly towards the fierce red flame in the air, hurling deadly javelins across the sky.

For a moment, it seems as if the flame in the distance flickered. Then suddenly, with a crackling sound, the air incinerates. A plane of dancing flame, led by an impossibly long chain-sword swiping across horizontally, expands across the sky, melting and exploding anything it touches, including the senior clone girl.

Once the carnage is over, there is only a twenty or so of the masked sisters with soiled pants left in the air. And they are still being shot at by the air defense system. The girls give up and fly east, desperately trying to get out of this cursed sky as soon as possible.

.

The siren has stopped. The HQ staff cheers loudly as their commanding officer walks into the hangar with Agito.

"Back to work, people! Punchkid and Anvil are still fighting." Shouts Signum. She does not seem pleased at all.

"Can't you just...enjoy the glory for a bit?" Agito suggests. Signum shakes her head, upset, furious even.

"No. Our hospital was completely defenseless! I want the air above Caledfwlch secured right now! Take Ginga's anti-air platforms if it comes to that."

Signum waits for an answer but gets none.

"Get on it!"

"Alright, alright." Agito hovers away from Signum, pouting.

**#**

.

Vita is furious seeing an Alicia clone coming up the northern ridge. She can hear the fight still going on on that slope, which means this girl somehow made it through. Vita grabs her assistant and swivels him around, pointing at the masked clone girl, who is promptly dealt with by the combined efforts of several Raptor droids on the hilltop.

"What happened to 3rd company?" Vita shouts her question in anger.

"3rd is not respond-"

An urgent call from 3rd company interrupts the assistant. They are requesting to retreat as they finally cave in under pressure. Vita orders them to come up and regroup on the hilltop. Soon what's left of Anvil's 3rd company come up the slope. The company's captain runs over to Vita with a visibly frustrated expression.

"Major, permission to fight in our full capacity. Please!"

"No." Vita shoots the officer down.

"But madam-"

"No! Division says no, so I say no. And it stays no. Got it?"

The captain bites his lips but doesn't say anything. He returns to his men who have regrouped around Vita's command post on the hill.

Soon the northern side of the hill erupts in explosions and intense firefight as the invaders try to push in towards Vita's command post. The soldiers, what's left of the 3rd company and the accompanying Raptors, try to drive the enemy off the hill, but they barely manage to hold the position.

Suddenly, from down below, rapid firing sounds of vehicle-mounted automatic weapons echo in staccato; Vtoom! Vtoom! Vtoom!

"What the…" Vita gets on the comm immediately.

.

"Punchkid, I'm hearing mounted weapons being fired. What the hell are you doing!" Vita's angry voice rushes out of Subaru's communication magic. The Punchkid is standing beside her command vehicle that's firing its gun into the darkness. All armored carriers around the command post are shooting towards the north and the noise is deafening.

"I'm fighting the enemy, god damn it. They're breaking into my command post!" Subaru shouts into the comm.

"God damn it! Small caliber only!" Vita is shouting, too.

Subaru glances down. Teana is hunkered down behind the armored chassis, both pistols drawn. The veteran Enforcer tries to maintain her composure, but she is visibly, and understandably, afraid as an endless shower of golden javelins screams through the explosion-filled air. Some hit and are deflected off the armored plates with unnerving noises.

"Are you serious?" Subaru gets back on the comm.

"I will kill you if you get Hayate in trouble!" Vita threatens from the hilltop.

In frustration, Subaru punches her command vehicle's armor plate just above Teana's head. The impact jolts and pushes the heavy metal about half a meter sideway. A soldier pops his head out the top hatch and looks around in confusion. The soldier spots Subaru.

"What the hell, major?"

"Sorry!" Subaru then hesitates before giving her order. "Get off the gun. Small caliber only."

She glances down again. Teana looks up nervously with a weak smile.

"And this is what you get paid for?" Teana points at the deadly environment surrounding the area.

"Handsomely, yes." Subaru puts her hands on her waist. "And remember, Teana, we are fighting with our hands tied. We don't generally get our ass kicked like this."

Teana grimaces. How the hell is this supposed to be Executive Office's job?

.

Vita hears the sounds of mounted weapons down the hill die down to a stop, but the absence is compensated by more intensified sounds of Strike rifles firing. And lots of yelling and painful screaming.

Her situation on the top of the hill is not any better as the enemy continues its attempt to take the hill from both the front and the northern slopes. Vita has no other choice but to bring her ace captain back. She calls Subaru.

"Punchkid, I need Erio back up here. Your guys can hold my right alone?"

"Do what you gotta do." Subaru replies. After a brief pause, she adds. "Punchkid will hold south."

Vita ends the comm thanking Subaru. She knows Subaru has every right to be bitter and pissed, but the kid will continue to keep Anvil's rear safe.

.

Captain Mondial's company moves up the slope from the southern foot of the hill. Subaru's units re-position themselves, consolidating the defense in order to compensate for the vacancy left behind by the Anvil's company leaving the area.

As Erio's company reaches the hilltop, two platoons take up positions at the ridges facing east and north, guarding Vita's command post. One is sent on the back slope to link up with Punchkid's command post down the hill, providing fire support to the fight happening on the lower ground as best they can.

In the meantime, the Vaizen flight mages are doing everything they can to intercept the airborne invaders attacking the ground, but with the Midchilda Wing effectively tied down to irrelevance trying to drive off the dedicated manhunt on their leader, the task has become more and more difficult.

The large mound of dirt and rocks is lit up like a burning ship in the middle of the otherwise pitch-black ocean. The entire hill is on flame, burning, with sporadic explosions happening all over the place and the air saturated with deadly magics zigzagging across. But Rapid Response is still holding the position. For now, at least.

**#**

.

The battle has dragged on to many hours past midnight. Punchkid's command post is in chaos as the soldiers are fighting off the breach, sometimes resorting to close-quarter melee. Like a mother goose, Subaru stands tall over her friend Teana, who's taken the cover crouched behind the armored chassis of Subaru's command vehicle, shooting at the Alicia clones with her dual pistols. Subaru, too, has been forced to pick up her rifle. Occasionally a clone girl would come too close with either a blade or scythe drawn, only to be crushed by Subaru's martial art blows.

There is a loud scream of pain from the personnel carrier sitting some twenty meters left of the duo. It ends abruptly. Then suddenly from the carrier's shadow three masked invaders, with their beam blades drawn, dash towards the two friends. Subaru and Teana shoot the same target and blow one up to pieces but leaving the other two free. The girls are already on top of the duo. With her magically armored fist, Subaru blocks the blade swinging down on her crouched friend, kicking the attacker in the chest, which caves in with a loud bone cracking sound and the punctured heart and lungs deflating.

But in the attempt to protect her dear friend Subaru left her own defense open. The remaining Alicia clone's blade smashes through the barrier and cuts Subaru's face open, running vertically over her left eye and the cheek, ending up buried deep in the collarbone.

Teana, furious, shoots the masked face at point-blank range. The head explodes, spraying the two friends with skull fragments and blood.

"Argh, fuck!" Subaru collapses with her hands on her face. Teana jumps over her fallen friend and with her own shaking hands pulls the blade out of the Punchkid's shoulder. She pries Subaru hands off to check on the wound. There is a long deep gash running down the face.

Several soldiers rush to the position to check on their boss. They break out an emergency medikit and start working on their commanding officer.

"It hurts! My eye-" Subaru screams in pain.

"Of course, it hurts, major, but you are gonna live." A soldier readies a painkiller shot, but Subaru grabs the hand.

"No! I need to stay awake!"

The soldier hesitates. Teana grabs the hand that is holding the painkiller shot and forcefully slams it down on Subaru's thigh.

"No, Teana, what the fuck-" Subaru goes limp, half conscious half asleep. Breathing heavily Teana faces the soldiers. Did she do the right thing?

"Thank you, madam." The soldiers nod in appreciation.

.

The situation is slightly better on the hilltop, with Captain Mondial's company successfully containing the breach at the northern ridge.

"Vita, Subaru is hurt!" Teana's voice erupts in Vita's comm.

"Teana? Who let you on the military channel?"

"It doesn't matter!" Teana is screaming. "I'm calling it off!"

Major Vita grits her teeth and grimaces. Teana is exercising her 'on-paper' status as the Enforcer in charge.

.

"It is indeed her call." Says Signum to Vita's hologram face.

"But I thought you wanted this hill?" Vita protests from some hundred kilometers away.

Oh, yes, Signum wants that hill bad. Princess wants that hill, too.

"But it's turning out to be too costly. Princess has given me an OK to pull out." Signum informs Vita. "I will be honest with you, Vita. We underestimated our enemy. It's on the command, not you. Nor Subaru." She sighs. "How bad is Subaru hurt?"

"She will live."

"Good." Signum then transmits a coordinate some distance west of the hill. "Ginga has setup there and should be able to block any pursuit. Fall back to her position."

"But-"

Signum cuts Vita off.

"Look, Vita, you and Subaru have done what you can." Sure, they are going to lose a good position, but the time Vita and Subaru have bought for Ginga, a freaking regiment not a mere battalion, to dig in also has its own value. Just before Vita's call, Princess, after carefully studying the tactical feeds, sent a simple message; 'fuck it'. Signum shakes her head recalling the short message. Somebody has to talk to Princess about sending such profanity over the logged channel. She gets back to Vita.

"Thanks to you Ginga has had the time to dig in. Now get out of there."

"OK. I hear you were under attack?" asks Vita, worried.

"Nothing too serious." Signum plays it cool. "Don't worry about me, worry about you coming back in one piece."

.

Pacing around in her office, Hayate is furious.

"You and Signum just killed one tenth of their force!" She paces around some more. Reinforce keeps her mouth shut.

"But I can't go offensive!" Hayate is red on the face.

"Nothing much we can do." Reinforce tries to calm her general down, but she, too, is disappointed.

Last night Hayate ordered an attack, exploiting the enemy willingly giving up their initiative. Not even 24 hours have passed and Hayate is on the run, forced to not act upon a good chance which Reinforce almost single-handedly created…with a tiny bit of help from Signum. The little fairy-like girl pouts. This is so not fair.

**#**

.

Vita's voice echoes out of the communication channel.

"All units, a retreat order from the division command. Punchkid go first, Anvil provide cover."

Teana thinks for a second Vita sounds disappointed. A soldier gestures towards Teana.

"Madam Enforcer, please get in." He opens the back hatch of the command vehicle.

Teana nods and helps the soldiers carry Subaru in. Others stand on guard shooting at the enemy while the compartment is loaded with other wounded soldiers. When it's full, somebody bangs on the exterior armor plate, and the carrier starts moving. Those who can still walk either jog along or ride on top, firing at the rear.

.

Vita watches as her sister battalion leaves the area. The enemy on the southern sector, now unopposed, wraps around the hill and joins with the sisters from the other side at the foot of the back slope. Instead of coming up the hill the masked clones start to chase after Punchkid.

"Erio!"

Vita shouts into the comm, and the young captain immediately jumps into action. Captain Mondial orders his platoon on the back slope to assault the lower ground. The soldiers catch the Alicia clones who have their backs turned. The girls turn around from their chase in order to deal with this threat on their backs.

.

On the front slope, a senior Alicia clone is shouting over the noise.

"We should go after them! Otherwise, they fight us again at the terminal!"

The red ribbon girl has a different opinion.

"No! We can't leave the Bureau soldiers behind our back. What if they attack us from behind? Or the portal?"

The first senior girl thinks about it for a few seconds. She finally nods in agreement. Cleaning up this hill should come first.

She looks around other senior sisters.

"Anyone heard anything back from the girls at the Terminal?"

The girls just look at each other's masked face. Nobody has heard anything.

.

Fighting for her life, particularly her very own, Nanoha sees the invaders have completely surrounded the hill down below. Vita is under attack from all directions.

The White Devil and her Midchilda flights have fought out of their minds and finally have found some breathing room, having significantly reduced the clones going after the group leader.

"I think that's about it-"

Nanoha trails off. She chokes at the sight of another hundred or so masked girls rising up in the air, half of them joining the ground attack effort. The Vaizen flight mages are visibly exhausted and are clearly missing several of their members. Yet again they scramble to intercept, trying to keep the air above Anvil clear.

On the other hand, the other half of the newly airborne clone invaders heads straight to the Midchilda's squadron; the flying devil in particular.

"You gotta be kidding me!"

She checks on her colleagues. She's down to three flights of four, and they aren't in good shape either. Nanoha grits her teeth.

"Form up! Endure! If we lose, they will swarm our Vaizen friends!"

"But they are swarming you!" One of her junior officers points it out. Nanoha just glares at him briefly.

"Airborne from inland! Hostile!" Vaizen air's Bug Boy panics on the other side of the comm. "When did they get there? Can you deal with them, White Devil?"

Nanoha has to dodge another set of attempts at her life before answering.

"No, I've got my hands full-"

She watches in amazement as twenty or so badly burnt enemies just fly over the hill at top speed, heading to the seaside. Apparently, Bug Boy is equally puzzled as Nanoha.

"OK…Never mind."

.

Vita lets out a sigh of relieve as she receives the news Punchkid has safely gone out of reach. It's now her turn to roll. She orders her battalion to get ready, then calls her trusted right hand.

"Erio, you are on point. Break through and lead the battalion out." Vita sends over the coordinate. "Colonel Nakajima should be waiting for us."

"We are attacking the other direction?" Erio's voice inquires in an optimistic tone.

"Hell, no, we are running away."

"What about you, major?" Erio asks, this time a concerned voice. 'Good boy.' Vita smiles quickly to no one in particular.

"I'm staying with the Raptors and taking the pressure off your back."

Erio tries to protest, but Vita cuts him off. "Shut up and go!"

.

Led by the young captain wielding a spear in one hand and a Strike rifle in the other, Captain Mondial's company assaults down the hill and picks up its platoon there on the way, then proceeds to plough through the masked invaders coming up the back slope and on the ground. The armored carriers run through the gap created, with the rest of the Anvil battalion following at high speed, running over the fallen Alicia clones. As the vehicles rush westwards, the Raptors remaining on the hilltop pour fire down on the enemy in order to pin the clones down in place.

Anvil battalion breaks out of the encirclement, making its way inland.

The invading clones, worried about leaving these annoying Bureau soldiers behind their back, turn their attention yet again to the hill. Major Vita and what is left of the Raptor battalion form up in preparation for the imminent onslaught.

**#**

.

Hayate has calmed down and now sits at her desk, monitoring the tactical feeds from Vaizen. Reinforce has opened the windows so the dawn breeze can get in, hopefully carrying a new day's energy to the depressed lieutenant general.

Hayate has been up all night and it shows with the wrinkled shirt, messy hair, and tired eyes with dark sacks. The silly Hello Kitty ashtray on the desk is filled to the brim with cigarette butts, some ash spilled over onto the desk. She calls Signum, whose face pops up immediately.

"Punchkid made it out safely. Anvil has also broken through." Signum reports. Hayate studies the hologram face for some seconds. No sign of worries.

"I see Vita still up on the hill, though." Hayate is worried. "She's all alone against the whole lot of them."

"So was Subaru on the first day." Signum says matter-of-factly.

Hayate throws her hands in defeat. These Wolkenritters and their pride as warriors are really something special it still amazes Hayate after all the years they've been together.

"Jeez, you always go extra hard on fellow knights."

Major general Signum doesn't answer, but just flashes a weak smile with a hint of pride. Hayate gets onto her point.

"Raptors are expendable, but Vita is not. Signum, I need her back alive."

Signum stands to attention. Hayate continues.

"Do they know we can't destroy the gate?"

The division commander in Vaizen thinks about it for some seconds. She shakes her head.

"As far as I know, they don't. Subaru had tried before the enemy arrived."

"Good, good." Hayate nods, pleased. "It's their only asset in Vaizen. Go wreck it. Draw them away from Vita." She checks the time. "And I think…yeah, she should reach Vita just in time." Hayate chuckles at the thought. 'I bet the clones have never seen anything like it.'

.

Nanoha is, of course, still fighting the clones obsessed in killing her, when Signum's call comes in.

"White Devil, a new mission for you."

"White Wing, Signum-san!" Nanoha shouts into the comm while dodging an attack. "Not you, too!"

Signum ignores this little detail and continues.

"Zafira is going to attack the dimensional gate. I need you to wreak havoc from above."

Nanoha is puzzled. What about the legal constraints?

"Are we allowed to do that?"

"The Staging Dock belongs to Naval Intelligence, Sail Force." Signum explains. "Military facility full of confidential stuff. The standard security protocol dictates any armed intruders are to be shot on sight."

Nanoha makes an O-face. Burnt to the ground or not, the Dock still is a military facility alright. She surveys her flight mages; all very tired and look like they are going to drop dead any second. Yet she still sees a few drops of juice she thinks she can squeeze out.

"I'm on my way." She informs Signum and leads her group, powering through the swarm of enemies.

The Midchilda Air's squadron manages to break off and then heads seaside at full speed. The airborne clones do not know what to do with this new development, but after a short hesitation, they chase after the flying devil.

.

On the hill, the Raptors are collapsing under the immense pressure. Major Vita is surrounded, cut off from the Raptors, but the invaders are having a hard time killing this angry child wielding a war-hammer larger than herself. A crude ring has formed around the Anvil's commanding officer, its radius roughly twice the length of the war-hammer's shaft.

Although exhausted and outnumbered, Vaizen's flight mages are doing their utmost to keep the air above Vita clear, paying the price to do so with their own blood.

A senior Alicia clone steps up and challenges Vita, confidently parrying the hammer that came crushing down on her head. Her counter attack pushes Vita back a few meters. Vita takes a step back and examines the new challenger. 'What's with that ribbon?'

Vita shakes her head, trying to focus. The red ribbon girl does not miss this opportunity and launches forward at an incredible speed. Vita quickly ducks just in time to let the glowing blade pass over her head. She thrusts her hammer in return, but the clone girl just sidesteps out of the harm's way. Vita glares at the eyes behind the mask. She has this nagging question in her mind.

'Have I actually ever won a fight against Fate?'

She focuses again. With the hammer raised, Major Vita lunges forward.

.

It's dawn and the Staging Dock has been quiet whole night. Every now and then the girls would hear from their sisters fighting on the hill. It seems everything is going in their way. Pleased, the masked girls relax.

So, it is no surprise they are caught completely off guard when Zafira's recon company comes out of nowhere assaulting the ruined facility. They watch in horror as the dimensional gate comes under attack. The invaders scramble to drive Zafira's soldiers off.

Then the Midchilda Air's squadron led by the flying devil screams above the Alicia clones, blowing up everything beneath as they pass.

.

Fortunately for Vita, the girls have decided to just watch. Vita is sure she would not come out in one piece if the others joined in the fight. This girl with the red ribbon is strong, Vita admits. But nothing she can't handle, Vita grumbles. It's just that she is tired and also has to keep an eye on her surroundings and stuff so she can't fully concentrate. She tries to think of some more excuses. Indeed, Vita has been keeping her surroundings in check. The Raptors are falling left and right, which is not good news.

Suddenly there are lots of yelling and confusion among the clones. Exchanging half-hearted blows with the red ribbon girl, Vita quickly glances around trying to find out what's going on. The girls on the slopes are leaving. The girls on the lower grounds are leaving. Even the girls in the sky are leaving. 'What the hell?'

The ribbon girl reminds Vita their fight is still not over. Vita parries just in time to prevent her head getting chopped off. 'That's right' she thinks, quickly taking the stock of her surroundings again. There are still a hundred or so girls on the hilltop, finishing off the remaining Raptors. 'I still need to fight my way out.'

.

Nanoha glances down inland and sees the sea of bodies illuminated by the thin light of the rising sun. Like a tide, the clone girls are rushing back from the hill to the Staging Dock. Nanoha gets on the comm to warn Zafira. He has to get out in time or his company will be overwhelmed.

"Zafira, they are almost back. Get out of there!"

"Roger. We will disengage."

Nanoha orders her squadron to bombard the pulsating gate. Sure enough, upon seeing the flight mages pummeling their gateway to back home the clone girls decide to go after the flying devil. Rapid Recon, now with slightly less pressure on them, disengages and starts pulling back.

One Alicia clone comes too fast and too close neither Nanoha nor her colleagues have time to shoot the girl down. Nanoha has to resort to a brutal physical attack, slamming her staff on the clone girl's face. Raising Heart in its staff mode lands on the face with a satisfying 'tonk!' sound, which results in the girl's head exploding.

'Tonk?' Nanoha is confused. It should have been a thud…or a whack. Her eyes try to follow the falling dead body, but the head is gone Nanoha can't make out what made the noise. She surveys the air; the Fate girls are closing on her formation fast. Something is different from yesterday but Nanoha can't exactly put her finger on it. Not that she has the time to spare. An urgent call comes from Agito.

"White Devil! Recon! Sail Force reports mass approaching the gate! Get the hell out!"

Nanoha glances down at the gate. Zafira's soldiers are pulling back fast, and she is relieved to see them not having too much trouble getting away from the Dock. Then to her horror, several thousand invaders emerge from the dimensional gate. Many of them immediately rise up in the air, heading straight to the Midchilda Air's 1st squadron.

"Disengage! Disengage! Let's get out of here!" Nanoha screams into the comm, but the girls are too fast. They swarm the Bureau's flight mages.

.

Zafira's Recon Company has retreated out of the facility. Zafira and Alph look up the sky, where Nanoha's flight mages are desperately fighting for their lives, trying to break out of the blob surrounding them.

"God damn it!" Alph cusses.

"Nothing we can do to help." Zafira pushes Alph to keep moving. "Lieutenant Alph, take the company and screen the enemy's movement from the south. Stay out of sight as best as you can."

"What about you?" Alph is concerned. What is the captain going to do?

Zafira transforms into his puppy mode.

"Girls like puppies. I'm gonna hang around a bit."

"Hey, I can do that, too. Let me stay." Alph protests. She, too, has her puppy mode. The alpha puppy on the ground shakes its head.

"No, Alph. We can't risk Testarossa recognizing you."

Alph can't argue with that. She salutes the captain puppy and leads the company to the south.

.

Vita, too, is fighting for her life on the hill. Her fight with the red ribbon girl has dragged on too long for Vita's liking. For some reason, most of the Alicia clones have pulled back from the hill. If she is to get out of here alive, this is her chance.

Suddenly Bug Boy's stunned voice distracts Vita.

"What the fuck? What the fuck? Do you see that Anvil?

"I'm busy!" answers Vita back, dodging an attack that nearly cut her legs off. Bug Boy is still blabbering on the comm.

"What the fuck is that thing?!"

Vita has had enough. She is not going to kill this annoying ribbon girl any time soon. She shouts an order for the Raptors, what's left of them, to get off the hill. Vita makes an aggressive attack on the clone girl she has been fighting, who in response takes a few steps back.

Vita quickly turns and powers her way through the surprised masked clones who have not anticipated this little soldier would run away. Within a dozen or so steps she bumps into and comes face to face with a tall Alicia clone wearing a broken mask that only covers less than half the face. With a bloodcurdling battle cry Vita swings her war-hammer, but the clone girl with the broken mask frantically waves her arms and blinks out of Vita's sight. 'Shit, she's fast.' Vita notes and continues to power her way through the girls, running downhill. But halfway down the hill, she comes face to face with another strong Alicia clone, who nonchalantly parries Vita's war-hammer.

"Welp, this sucks." Vita cusses her luck.

The clone sisters jump on the small angry child soldier.

A giant scaled hand swings down from above, sweeping across the mass of the masked clones surrounding Vita, its razor-sharp claws shredding the bodies to ribbons. The clone sisters look up, and are immediately taken aback, terrified at the sight of what they see, shrieking in fear, some even wetting their overall pants.

A massive white dragon lands next to Major Vita. On its back sits a young woman in the Air Armament Service combat uniform. Above her, four flights of mages spotting Midchilda Air's insignia float in the air among the Vaizen squadron. The young lady greets with a nod.

"Good morning, Major Vita. Midchilda's 2nd squadron at your service."

"Good morning, Caro." Vita suddenly feels all her strength draining out of her body. What a relief, she thinks out aloud. I'm getting out alive.

The dragon gently grabs Vita in its hand.

"Now let's get you out of here, Major." Captain Caro Ru Lusche guides her dragon into the air. Joined with the flight mages, they leave the hill, heading inland westward.

Below them, the senior clone with the red ribbon tries to rally her cowering sisters.

"No! Don't let them get away-"

A hand taps on her shoulder and she turns around to face a tall sister wearing a broken mask only covering one third of the face, and in dirty overall that is clearly undersized.

"Look, we don't even know how many of those monsters they have!" The sister shouts, leaning in.

"But-" The red ribbon girl tries to argue, but the sister shakes her head. There is something authoritative about her demeanor.

"We've fought all night we don't have the strength to push further."

The ribbon girl looks around. The sisters watch her in silence, waiting for her words. They all look exhausted.

**#**

.

An ambulance unloads Teana and several wounded soldiers outside the building lit by the morning sunlight. After reaching Ginga's position, the injured were transferred over to the waiting ambulances. A lot of them.

Teana stays close to Subaru as the latter is carried inside the makeshift field hospital building along with the others.

Once inside, Teana waits patiently for Shamal to process the new arrivals. Examining Subaru's injured face, the doctor calls Teana over.

"She will live, Teana, but this must have hurt a lot." She checks the left eye and grimaces. "This is lost for good. What happened?"

"This idiot took a blade for me." Teana answers in an irritated tone. Why does Subaru always do such stupid things?

"I wouldn't call that being an idiot. It's heroic." Says Shamal, straitening up. She, too, had a long night.

"Huh? No, I mean she's an idiot in general." Teana scoffs. She continues. "Listen, I gotta get back to my boss and then go to Midchilda. Promise me you take extra extra good care of Subaru?"

Shamal looks puzzled.

"Fate? Didn't you meet her on the way?"

Now Teana is puzzled.

"What do you mean? Was she here?"

"She stopped by hours ago." Shamal then winces. "Don't even ask what she wanted to be done on her face."

.

Teana barges into Signum's HQ hangar.

"Where did Fate go?" She yells to no one in particular.

Signum is busy at a corner receiving reports and giving instructions. She doesn't even look this way. Instead, a soldier comes up to Teana and salutes. There is a large coffin-like crate tagging along behind him.

"Madam, here's your package ready to go."

He taps on the stasis coffin on a self-driven wheel cart. Teana looks inside the coffin.

"Why is she naked?"

The soldier shrugs. He is not very comfortable with the question of why a dead girl he's been taking care of is suddenly naked. Wrong kind of rumors start that way. Instead, he hands over a handwritten note.

"Chief Enforcer left a note on her desk. It's for you."

Teana quickly takes the note and reads it out aloud.

"Teana, I'm pulling off the easiest undercover job in history. I will find out what they want in Midchilda...Talk to Chrono when you have the analysis results-"

She flips the note to check if there is more on the other side but finds none.

"What the hell, boss…"

The soldier tries to get Teana's attention.

"Sorry, madam, but almost all our vehicles are in use right now." He taps on the stasis coffin. "But this is self-driven. A bit slow, but you can still ride on it should you wish to do so."

Teana tries to imagine herself riding a wheeled coffin with a dead girl inside. She shakes her head. She will walk to the Midchilda gate. It's only a few hundred meters anyway.

Teana fiddles with the cart's control. In the meantime, the soldier can't take his eyes off of the bone fragments and gray pink brain matters smeared all over this lady Enforcer's uniform.

.

Nanoha dodges an attack and pushes the attacker aside for her flight mages to finish off.

"Damn it!"

She checks on her squadron. They are dutifully sticking by, despite being completely exhausted. But it is not as bad as it was on the hill. She has noticed the newly arrived Fates are melee only, just like the first day.

"These ones haven't learned the trick?" She thinks to herself aloud.

"Boss, we've got to get out of here!" One of her squadron shouts through the comm.

Nanoha is fully aware. She has to find an opening to lead her men and women out of this swarm.

Suddenly, from a corner of the residential town only a few kilometers outside the Staging Dock, thousands of lightning bolts shoot up in the air, dispersing a section of the blob that is surrounding the Midchilda's flight mages.

'Phalanx shift?!' Nanoha is surprised. Why is it coming from the town? No matter. She has to get her unit out.

"This is our chance! Break through!"

Leading the squadron, she powers through the opening at full speed. The flight mages break it out of the encirclement. As they speed towards inland, another set of Phalanx Shift attack saturates the air behind the squadron, giving the Bureau mages a head start and discouraging the invaders from pursuing.

Nanoha counts her group. From the original sixteen flight mages who left Midchilda, she's now down to ten including herself and the two bleeding badly. The proud ace of the aces has suffered a devastating loss. But that is not her primary concern right now. Nanoha looks over her shoulder down at the town. Fate is definitely down there somewhere. But why?

.

A group of clone sisters rushes to the scene, just outside the southern edge of the town. A lone Alicia clone wearing a broken mask runs up to them.

"The soldiers! They ran that way!"

She points to the south. As the sisters hurry off in that general direction, the girl steps away and jogs towards the town center, making sure no one is paying special attention to her. Soon she joins the others and melts into the crowd.

.

Alph's heart sinks. From her hiding spot, she watched a tall clone girl pointing at her general direction, and now a group of the masked invaders is heading this way.

"Shit, did they spot us?" She whispers her order to pull back into the company communication. "Pull way back. Maintain maximum concealment."

The recon company cloaks up and silently retreats further south.

.

Nanoha's voice fills Signum's hangar.

"I've broken through. Heading home now."

The HQ staff cheers loudly. Signum lets out a sigh of relief.

"Has Vita got out?" asks Nanoha from the distant sky.

"White Devil, Anvil is safe and sound. Your mission was a success. Now, leave the air-duty to Dragonling. Come home." Signum hears Nanoha relaxing on the other end of the comm. "Don't fly over the hill." Signum adds.

As the communication ends, Teana, who has been listening, silently leaves the hangar with the self-driven stasis coffin tagging along.

.

Leading the self-driven stasis coffin, Teana enters the terminal packed with a continuous stream of Raptor combat droids exiting the jump gate from Midchilda. 'This must be Signum's 2nd regiment.' She recalls the brief chat she had with the Rapid Response commander.

She spots a young man in the Executive Office uniform and approaches him.

"Teana Lanster. I believe there is special teleportation to Midchilda arranged for me?"

The young man recognizes the famed Enforcer and salutes.

"Good morning, Enforcer Lanster." He checks his datapad. "There indeed is on directed jump straight to the Office HQ."

Teana has some other plans.

"I'd like to pay a visit to Capital Defense Command first. Could you change the jump destination?"

The man looks troubled.

"Madam, that's a jump to a military facility. We are not authorized-"

"Please."

The young man nods and after a thought initiates a comm to somewhere. Teana leans onto the stasis coffin and closes her eyes, dozing off. After some minutes she is woken up by a gentle tap on the coffin. The man beams a smile. Teana Lanster is cleared to jump to Capital Defense.


	9. 9: Enemy of Vaizen

It's late in the morning in Midchilda's Capital Defense Corps HQ. Reinforce helps Hayate change into a clean shirt and skirt. Then floating around Hayate's head, she brushes the commander's hair.

"-and then you have lunch with the Vaizen Management in exile-" Reinforce goes over today's schedule.

"Oh god, what do they want from me?" Hayate, understandably, is not looking forward to meeting Vaizen people after a night that can only be described as a defeat.

"Well, let me think." Reinforce pretends to think. "They have millions evacuated, the economy is in full stop, crops are sure to be ruined, and oh yeah, there is a war going on."

She leans back and examines Hayate's appearance while helping with the necktie.

"You look you are going to die, Hayate."

"I need sleep-" Princess complains.

The two ladies turn their heads as there is a commotion outside the closed office door. People are shouting at someone to stop. Suddenly the door flings open, and Teana walks in, followed by Hayate's soldiers with their weapons drawn pointed at the uninvited guest. The progression is completed by a self-driven stasis coffin wading its way through the soldiers, coming to a stop next to cold-eyed Teana.

"Guys! Don't tell me you don't recognize my friend Teana Lanster." Hayate waves her people off, telling them to leave. The soldiers grumble and reluctantly leave, closing the door behind them.

Hayate walks around her large desk and leans back on her comfortable swivel chair. She offers Teana to sit as well, but the Enforcer remains standing.

"Teana, what brings you here?"

"I just came back from Vaizen." Teana's voice is as cold as ice. "Nanoha almost died." She points at Hayate across the desk. "Even your Vita almost died. And Subaru..." Teana leans over the desk, eyes glaring. "Subaru is hurt."

Hayate doesn't say anything, but her friendly smile is gone. Teana continues, eyes boring into the young general's.

"You had everything right there, right then. Even big cannons...just sitting there. Doing nothing."

"Watch your tone, Teana." Reinforce warns, hovering a bit closer.

"A whole lot of people died thanks to your stupid-"

"Teana!" Reinforce shouts over Teana's voice. "You are talking to the Capital Defense-" She can't finish her sentence because Teana slams a fist on the desk.

"When I send my guys out for a raid!" Teana yells. "I give them everything! I fucking empty the whole arsenal!"

"Enforcer Lanster!" Reinforce is not going to float there and let Teana behave like this in front of a general. She gets right in front of Teana's face.

"And! And I make sure I'm the one kicking the door down!" Teana finishes nevertheless. Fuming.

"It was YOUR operation!" Reinforce gets in Teana's face, screaming. "We provided assistance on YOUR request!"

"I know it's bullshit, and you know it's bullshit!" Teana almost headbutts the little fairy-like girl in her face. "You just wanted me there as an excuse to fight, no matter what!" She pushes Reinforce aside and faces quite Hayate. "And Subaru is hurt...while you sat here," She gestures towards the spacious room in general, "Writing a fancy memo about how Vaizen no long is your job-"

Reinforce gets in the way again.

"Oh yeah? What were YOU doing out there?"

Teana's face turns red with rage.

"I was watching my best friend get a blade shoved in her face!" She shows her blood-soaked uniform dotted with bone fragments and brain matters. "Front row! VIP seat!" She once again pushes Reinforce aside. "At least I wasn't hiding behind my fantasy knights in their shiny armors."

Reinforce gasps, stunned by this intolerable accusation. She raises her tiny fists and is about to launch herself at this rude woman, but Hayate stops her. Commander Yagami, hurt, clears her throat.

"Teana, is that really what you think of me and my Wolkenritters?"

"This is what I think!"

Teana picks up the Hello Kitty ashtray and then throws it down on the carpeted floor. The ashtray shatters to pieces, sending cigarette butts and ash everywhere. This violent outburst takes heat off Teana and calms her down a bit. She stands there in awkward silence for what feels like an eternity. Hayate keeps quiet, allowing Teana to cool down.

"No..." Teana breaks the silence, her voice no longer icy cold. "Not really. I just..." She hangs her head low. "Sorry, I lost it."

"That hill..." Hayate sits up. "It controls the area around it, becomes a thorn in the arse no matter which direction the enemy advances as long as we keep our men on it."

Teana doesn't say anything. Hayate continues.

"It works in reverse, too. Now it's a thorn in our arse." She waits for Teana to look up, meeting her eyes.

"Signum...no, who am I kidding. I really really wanted to keep that hill, even if it meant fighting with our hands tied and using you as an excuse." Hayate shakes her head. "But I failed. For that I'm sorry." She sighs and continues. "I was arrogant and stubborn. Thought I could pull it off. And you got caught right in the middle of it. For that, I'm sorry, too."

Teana sighs, too. She raises her hands in defeat, backing off. Hayate continues nevertheless.

"I'm sorry Subaru got hurt. I'm really sorry." Hayate means it.

"No, I'm sorry. You were just playing by the book and I just-" Teana trails off.

"You stepped over the line, Teana." Reinforce reminds Teana in a scolding tone, but she, too, has calmed down. Teana turns to Reinforce apologetically.

"Yes, I did. Sorry."

Hayate lights a cigarette and puffs on it. She grimaces.

"But you are right, Teana. I can't go on like this."

"But what can you do?" Teana asks. The legal matters are strictly out of Hayate's control.

"I don't know, but I gotta get out of this limbo." Hayate shrugs. She extends her arm and gently flicks the cigarette, dropping the fresh ash onto the spot on the desk where the Hello Kitty ashtray used to be just minutes ago. She does a double-take on the spot, blinking at the gray ash on her otherwise clean desk.

Teana points at the mess. "Yeah, erm...sorry about that."

**#**

.

Teana comes out of the shower into the locker room located inside the Executive Office HQ building. She takes out a vacuum-sealed packet out of her locker and tears it open for a new set of uniforms. The smell of the new clothing somewhat makes her ready for the day anew. Dressing up, she calls her friend in the lab. The Investigation lab is already in full swing examining the dead body Teana brought in. While talking on the comm, Teana decides to walk to her office. She has a lot of things to do. After all Executive Office still needs to do its everyday job on top of the on-going war in Vaizen, and Teana does not like to have a backlog of unresolved cases piling up on her desk.

.

The senior laboratory operator ends the comm with Teana and goes back to studying the complex pattern floating in front of her. She has managed to extract the very essence of the dead girl's magical existence, what makes her her. Top boss wants her to isolate Al Hazard for some reason.

While her colleagues are doing the autopsy in the other room, she searches through the old snapshots of the mana signatures database. She knows what she is looking for and it doesn't take too long finding it. A matching mana pattern belonging to Fate T. Harlaown, fifteen years old. Or what Alicia would have been had the kid girl lived.

"So young to die playing soldier." The lab operator mutters. She studies the pattern again. Somewhere within this jumble of colorful lights and shapes and dots and lines is a fraction of Al Hazard, the long-lost world. Dr. Testarossa's trace should also be in there somewhere together with Alicia's essence as the seed. Precia Testarossa somehow put things together and still came out with the resulting pattern exactly the same as Chief Enforcer, who should not have any Al Hazard in her at all. The senior laboratory operator sighs.

"Now...how do I start this?"

.

Several blocks down the main street from the Executive Office's HQ is an old but prominent hotel towering over the downtown. Hayate sits at a large round dining table with a bland smile, listening to half a dozen Vaizen officials who do not look very happy. She nods and smiles and makes short remarks as a fleet of waiters serve foods and drinks to this only occupied table in the restaurant that on any other day would have been packed full with people trying to enjoy their nice expensive lunch. Across the table sits the Vaizen's managing director, an old bald man in a gray suit. He has been going on about how the invasion is killing Vaizen's economy.

"It's only been three days, but we are already suffering!" says the man.

"Sir, I do my best, but you understand I am... chained, as they say." Hayate's response triggers another round of the Vaizen management arguing themselves.

Hayate looks down in horror as a waiter takes her just finished steak plate away and places another in front of her; some fancy looking...whatever the heck this is. 'Smells good, though.' Hayate thinks to herself. 'Who the heck orders a seven-course meal for lunch?' She politely smiles to the managing director across the table and dutifully digs in.

The old man listens to his men arguing while observing the young general across the table. This little woman is fighting for Vaizen people. His people, his home. 'Maybe I should have ordered the twelve-course menu?' he wonders. Besides, this lady looks like she needs to gain some weight. The Vaizen managing director shakes his head slightly, remembering Commander Yagami is of Japanese origin. He has seen many of them in his life. They all have one thing in common; they don't look their age. 'She's not a kid. She's supposed to be thirty-something.' He reminds himself.

"There is a way." He announces, and the table goes silent. One of his men turns to him with a pale face.

"But, sir, we've discussed it this morning. It is political suicide-"

The Vaizen managing director puts his hand up to shut the man up.

"Sitting here in Midchilda doing nothing guarantees that I will go down. But," His eyes bore into the commanding officer of the Joint Task Force. Hayate has put down her cutlery and is listening. He continues.

"If you can secure a victory, the aftermath of the war... the rebuilding will create a tiny chance for me."

"If I can secure a victory." Hayate sighs.

.

At Caledfwlch factory the Helios crew walk out of the quarantine hangar to the pleasant afternoon weather, but they have a very short time to enjoy the sun. A column of large passenger vehicles arrives in front of the hangar to pick them up. Captain Lowran and the crew board the transports with grumpy faces, saying goodbye to Chrono and Yuuno. The Joint Task Force has arranged an armored personnel carrier for the acting director of Naval Intelligence and his consultant analyst. They are to report to the on-site JTF base and its officer in charge; Major general Signum. A soldier salutes the two gentlemen and informs them they are expected to participate in a video conference scheduled later that day.

"What would that be about?" Yuuno asks.

"The war. What else could it be?" says Chrono, getting inside the vehicle. Professor Scrya gets in, too. He has to ask.

"So, are we officially in a war or not?"

Chrono, about to sit himself down on a flap-seat mounted on the interior wall, stops mid-motion. He, too, has to wonder.

.

At the lobby inside the main office building across the parking lot, Subaru has woken up from her sleep in one of the many makeshift hospital beds arranged in rows and columns filling the entire space. Her torso is treated with a clavicle strap and half her head is wrapped in bandages, but she can still see with her right eye. Scanning the space, she recognizes familiar faces among the patients. Or at least those who still have their faces left recognizable. She can't take it and shuts her good eye, grinding her teeth.

.

In front of the Sail Force HQ building in Midchilda, there is a big protest going on. People chanting slogans, with pickets; "Unchain the Princess". Limousines start to arrive one by one wading through the sea of people, unloading generals and suited officials at the front steps of the building. When Hayate emerges from her limo with the Vaizen's managing director, the crowd cheers loudly, shouting out her name; "Yagami! Yagami!" or "Princess! Princess!"

But the cheer turns to boos and jeers at the sight of the Executive Office's Enforcer who has walked around the building from the parking lot on the side after coming in with her motorbike. The side entrance to the building from the parking lot has been locked down for security reasons so Teana has no choice but to go through the front of the building. As she walks up to the main entrance she hears someone shouting over the noise.

"Let Yagami fight, you bitch!"

Teana quickly turns to see who said that but can't find the culprit. 'It's not fair!' she thinks to herself. 'What did the Office do to deserve this?' But on the other hand, Teana is a little glad. She is once again filling in for her absent boss, but this time she is glad Fate isn't here to see this right now. Fate appearing in front of these angry people while her sisters are marauding in Vaizen... Teana shivers at the thought. She turns back and proceeds up the steps as eggs and vegetables are thrown her way.

**#**

.

The conference room is being filled by men and women in uniforms and suits. Sometime during the last meeting, someone asked, 'Why are we doing this at the Sail Force HQ?' to which nobody could provide an answer. The best explanation they collectively came up with was; because the very first reporting session was arranged by Naval Intelligence who booked this conference room, it then somehow got stuck. The chief of Sail Force shrugged and said: "Well, since we aren't really contributing much, at least let us host the meeting." And that settled the matter.

Hayate attracts a lot of attention as she enters the room with the Vaizen managing director, trailing Reinforce behind. Teana, too, manages to make heads turn but mainly because she has been egged all over her brand-new uniform she just got this morning.

.

On the front wall of the conference room is a large display fed from Signum's HQ, showing deputy director Harlaown, Professor Scrya, and major general Signum sitting together side by side in a long bench against the hangar wall.

The Security Adviser gets the meeting started by first welcoming the Vaizen's managing director and then greeting the three sitting in actual Vaizen.

"Let's start with what happened last night." He gestures towards Hayate, who redirects it to Teana.

"Sorry, I forgot." The Adviser apologizes and nods to the Enforcer. Teana manipulates her datapad and a 3D holo-display appears in the center of the room, showing the Vaizen map. The Staging Dock and the area surrounding it are marked in red shade. Teana stands up.

"Last night, a group of violent individuals advanced en masse towards a Bureau servicemen's position not far from the Staging Dock." The map zooms in and highlights the hill. She continues.

"Executive Officer on site, that would be me, was not able to apprehend the suspects even with the assistance provided by both Ground and Air Armament Services."

She waits for the room to quiet down. She gets it. Is Executive Office officially in charge now?

The Bureau Security Adviser raises his head from a face-palm.

"Let's cut the bullshit. We got our ass kicked, yes?"

"I got my ass kicked, sir." Hayate butts in, but Teana waves her off.

"Sir, the Office has no manpower." Teana points out. "And the Joint Task Force is operating under bullshit rules of engagement." She sits down. "And the Office is tanking all the blame." She adds, picking a small piece of eggshell out of her orange hair.

"I know." The Adviser sighs.

"We just need a clear definitive directive written and stamped, sir." Teana pleads. "Is the Office in charge or not? If we are, then I can set things in motion no matter how small, but as is now..."

"I agree with Enforcer Lanster." Hayate joins in. "Both service branches of the Bureau are sort of stuck in the limbo right now."

The Chairwoman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff steps in, trying to get things moving.

"Let's put the legal matters aside for now. Commander Yagami, what have we lost?"

Hayate points at the highlighted hill on the map.

"As you can see this hill not only controls the road junction but overlooks the vast flat land in the area."

The Staging Dock and the residential area are also highlighted. Hayate continues.

"The invaders...I mean the suspects? What do we call them-" She stops wondering as Lindy impatiently gestures her to go on. Hayate clears her throat and continues.

"Anyway...they are in this area. Now with the hill lost, they have the room to maneuver south along the coastal zone-"

"This is bad news." The Vaizen managing director interrupts. "The industrial zone along the coast is vital to the Vaizen economy." He looks around the room. "I'm grateful that you are prioritizing the safety of the people being evacuated at the Interworld, but if we lose the coastal industrial zone, it's going to set Vaizen economy back at least twenty years."

It takes a bit for the room to quiet down. Lindy nods to Hayate to continue.

"We are screening their movement, madam. If and when they do go south, a regiment of Rapid Response is in the position to launch an intercept operation." She points at the hill again. "But Nakajima's regiment will have its flank exposed to this place." Hayate hears Teana's whispered murmur 'Aw fuck that was why she-' Hayate ignores this little distraction and continues.

"Fortunately for us, for now, there is no indication of them going south, which is...rather puzzling, though."

"True." Lindy and other generals in the room nod in agreement. Any competent chief of an invasion force would aim to hold that industry zone as a hostage in exchange for the war objective. That's what Hayate would do.

"But they are not doing that. It doesn't make any sense." Hayate concludes and the soldiers in the room once again agree.

"Madam Chairwoman, Commander Yagami," Chrono, who has been silent up to now, interrupts everyone's train of thoughts. "I would like to remind you that Dr. Precia Testarossa is not an officer of an armed force. She does not have years of education and experience in armed conflicts as you do."

The Security Adviser snaps his finger.

"That actually makes sense. Have you people ever played poker with a complete novice?" He looks around the room. Apparently, many people attending the meeting enjoy playing poker. "I think we are in that kind of a situation."

Signum ahems couple of times to get the attention of Midchilda.

"Sir, I don't know about Dr. Testarossa, but the clones here in Vaizen are definitely learning how to fight better. Very fast. I am afraid there is a peer to peer learning process going on within the enemy even during a fight." She is clearly not very happy with the development. "What's worse is that they are free to put what they learn to immediate practices."

"You are saying the longer this goes on the stronger they will become?" The Security Adviser summarizes it nicely.

"But we need more time for mobilization..." says Lindy pointing out the paradoxical nature of the time issue.

On the main display, Signum is visibly uncomfortable.

"I can handle it even if they get a bit stronger, but the current legal limitations imposed on us doesn't help me securing the much-needed time."

The Adviser sighs as the topic returns to the legal matter. It is, after all, the elephant in the room.

"I've discussed the matter with the Managing Directors. We have two options here; One. Revoke Testarossa's citizenship."

"On what legal basis, sir?" Teana snaps immediately. "Revoking citizenship is a penalty, which we cannot sentence without a trial."

"We could try her in her absence." The Adviser suggests. He sees Teana's face turning red.

"Trial in absence with the verdict already given? For the sole purpose of revoking an individual's citizenship?" Teana jumps up and rages. "That is not a fair trial, sir! Executive Office will fight tooth and nail against such injustice!"

The room falls to an awkward silence. Teana sits down, blushing.

"That's what Chief Enforcer would say..." She trails off. Teana is sure she heard someone in the back of the room saying 'Yeah, right.'

The Bureau Security Adviser clears his throat, moving on to option number two.

"Anyway, option two. We amend the law. Simple, but..." He scratches his head. "I found out even with the public support we enjoy right now, the legislation process is going to take months...at least half a year-"

This time it's the Vaizen managing director's turn to rage.

"Half a year? You gotta be kidding me. We have millions displaced. Jobs are not getting done, bills are not getting paid!" He looks around the room accusingly. "Not even a week has passed since the invasion, but the impact on Vaizen already is at a catastrophic level!" The old man slams on the table. "Vaizen can't last half a year like this!"

The conference room once again becomes awkwardly silent. The Vaizen managing director sits down, burying the head in his hands.

"Commander Yagami, I ask you once again. Can you save Vaizen?" he asks softly.

.

Hayate senses she is in the spotlight. All eyes and ears are now on her. 'Thank god, at least I'm not on TV.' She tries to ease her nerve. She takes a deep breath and leans in on the table.

"As of this morning, there are roughly five thousand enemy clones in Vaizen. That's equivalent to two or three corps of our regular Ground Armament Service."

Those officers who haven't received the memo this morning gasp. Hayate tries to maintain her calm voice.

"I have a single division in place, plus some mobilized Vaizen units, of which I could make an ad-hoc regiment." She can tell the others are doing the mental calculation in their heads. "In two days, I can commit my other division... and I'm promised some expeditionary force at least of a regiment strength?" She glances at Lindy who nods. Hayate continues. "So that'd eventually be one enforced corps strength in total. Versus two or more at least." Hayate clears her throat again.

"But I will win in the end. Let me fight and I can drive them into the sea. That I can guarantee."

The Security Adviser drums his fingers on the table waiting for the room to quiet down. He eventually gets the chance to ask without having to shout over the noise.

"On what basis, if I may ask? You are outnumbered, and there remains the possibility they send more reinforcement."

"If Helios AI is right," Lindy chimes in. "There are one hundred to two hundred thousand more of those clones where they came from."

Hayate hasn't changed her stance. She is still leaning on the table on her elbows, her chin raised a bit in confidence, and a hint of a smirk on the face.

"Given the mobilization rate, I expect my expeditionary force in two or three weeks?"

"I do my best. Now please explain." Lindy urges Hayate to go on.

Hayate glances at Signum before starting. It is an unspoken message to her right hand. 'Listen to me, have faith.'

"Firstly, the clones are learning on the job; they are mimicking my officers. They no longer rely on their raw power, but are starting to act mindfully, employing tactical maneuvers and stances."

"Doesn't that make it worse for us?" The Vaizen managing director interrupts with a question. Hayate shakes her head.

"On the contrary, sir. I see the signs. The fights have transitioned into something that we've all trained for."

There is 'Oh' and 'Ah' in the room. She continues.

"Mimicry without comprehending the underlying fundamentals is going to work against them. It just can't compare against the years of training and accumulated experience we have." Hayate glances again at Signum, who nods in agreement. "A complete novice is unpredictable, thus difficult, but a half-learned noob is exploitable." Hayate concludes.

"That's..." Lindy tries to word it carefully. "That's an interesting point of view."

"And secondly, madam, the logistics." Hayate moves on. She turns to Chrono.

"My recon tells me there is no logistics effort on the enemy side. Just scavenging through that little town is all. What can Naval Intelligence tell me about their logistics?"

"Apart from the newly arrived troops, there has been no other traffic." Chrono shrugs. Before this meeting, he has had a chance to quickly go over the reports from his directorate. Precia Testarossa really is not putting in any effort to sustain her clone girls in Vaizen.

Hayate leans back on her seat.

"There. I win."

.

The Vaizen managing director is stunned. Even during the lunch session, he had his doubts, but now this old man is convinced. Yagami will save his Vaizen. Princess needs to be unchained at all cost.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Commander, we are still legally not allowed to-" Signum redirects the topic to the elephant in the room. The Vaizen managing director has heard enough. Lieutenant general Yagami is someone he can gamble his political career on. He stands up.

"What if I make it happen?"

The room goes absolutely silent. Everyone is thinking the same question; 'How?'

"What if I let Commander Yagami loose?" The old man rephrases his words.

"Pardon me, but how?" Asks the Security Adviser.

The Vaizen's managing director looks around the room with a determined expression.

"As the managing director of Vaizen, I do have an emergency tool that allows me to temporarily elevate Commander Yagami above the general laws, but right below the Bureau Charters."

The Security Adviser's jaw drops.

"Martial law? That's suicide on your part! The public backlash-"

"Three months!" The old man shouts. "Three months is the maximum Vaizen can hold. If the invaders are not driven off by then, Vaizen is finished no matter what. I'm finished. Regardless of whether they are repelled or not. Three months."

He fixes his eyes on Hayate, glistening bright with hope and determination.

"But if we...she pulls it off, at least I will have a chance to gain support back by rebuilding what's left of Vaizen."

Overall it is an inspiring scene in the conference room as this seasoned managing director gambles the fate of Vaizen and his everything on the diminutive young general. Of course, Hayate of all people has to ruin the mood by nitpicking the technical detail.

"Am I even eligible for the position? I'm Midchilda-"

"As the Joint Task Force Commander-" Lindy shuts Hayate up with a frown. 'Read the mood, please!' She continues. "As the JTF Commander of both Midchilda AND Vaizen, you are. You can be appointed the Martial law command."

Hayate makes the O-face. She is the Capital Defense Command. She is the de facto theater command by being the Joint Task Force command. 'And now I oppress the civil rights in Vaizen?'

"Executive Office," The Bureau Security Adviser interrupts Hayate's thoughts. "I want your opinion."

"Yes, sir." Teana thinks for a few seconds. "To be frank, sir, there would be practically no Vaizen citizens left in Vaizen to be subjected to the proposed martial law. Half of them is evacuated already, and the other half is leaving in a week or two anyway." Teana pauses and thinks a bit more. Technically all the legal conditions for declaring the martial law are already met.

"So, apart from the fact that the public loathes the oppressive nature of the martial law-"

"Right, thank you, Enforcer. Let's keep sentences short." The Adviser stops Teana from rambling on. He drums his fingers on the desk, thinking. He studies Hayate's little face. Reaching a three-star position at her young age is unheard of, yet she had aced all the tests and padded up her resume with impressive stories of epic proportions the Bureau simply could not deny her well-deserved stars. People are on the streets demanding this woman unleash her wrath in Vaizen. And now an entire world of a significant status within the Bureau's multiverse has decided to gamble its fate on this blushing lady.

"OK. I will talk to the Management." The Adviser has made his mind up.

**#**

.

Signum's staff ends the video conference session, and the two gentlemen and the lady knight stretch and relax. Professor Scrya yawns, wondering why he was asked to partake in the first place. Something has been bothering him for a while and this seems to be a good opportunity to ask.

"Can't Hayate just...nuke them?"

"What? No~." Chrono looks at Yuuno disgusted. Signum, on the other hand, smiles a bit. It was actually discussed when Wolfram went down. The top brass decided Bookworm can't do it.

"Why is that?" Asks Yuuno.

"Well, for one, we can't nuke Vaizen, that's obvious." Signum shrugs. "We can't send Hayate to Al Hazard either."

Hayate alone going to Al Hazard might be possible, Signum explains, but because a whole lot of supporting crew is required for her activation the logistics always is the problem intrinsic to Bookworm's destructive nature. She'd need a warship worth of people supporting her just to guide her strike actually land at the rough vicinity of the intended strike zone.

"We know what happened to Wolfram. They won't make it to Al Hazard." Signum shakes her head.

"I've always wondered." Yuuno moves onto another question. "Why is Nanoha the Doomsday, not Hayate?"

In a sense he is right. Hayate is the ultimate weapon of destruction that no other weapon in the Bureau's arsenal can compare. Chrono chuckles because he knows why.

"Yuuno, Doomsday refers to the Bureau's fate, not what Nanoha brings." Chrono explains. "Nanoha is activated when we really really want the enemy to suffer a guaranteed retaliation even after we have all died."

"How does that exactly work?" Yuuno, a longtime friend of Nanoha for nearly three decades, asks scratching his head. He has long ago realized he had picked up a monster while hunting the Jewel Seeds on the Earth. He still has trouble accepting the fact Nanoha has gone beyond all that and is now considered a strategic asset, a guaranteed retaliatory measure for the Bureau.

"Nanoha is devastating for sure, but Hayate has more raw power. But the most important factor is Nanoha can operate autonomously even when the rest of the Bureau is dead. Hayate can't do that." Says Chrono.

Yuuno digests this information for a second. Chrono is right. Hayate can't even button her shirt right on her own.

"I thought you knew, Professor. You two are longtime friends." Signum comments.

"Hmm, but we never talk about this stuff." Says Yuuno. He got into enough trouble when people came up to him to challenge 'the man who taught the White Devil how to fight.' Nanoha eventually learned of his trouble, and she has since stopped talking about blowing things up, or pulverizing things down to molecules, or experimenting with various herbs for colon cleansing, or incinerating things to ashes, etc., in order to keep Yuuno out of her explosive adventures.

"Let's say you succeeded in destroying the Bureau this afternoon." Chrono offers a simplified example, trying to explain what happens when the Time Space Administration Bureau has a grudge. "At midnight Nanoha comes and blows up your house. Morning comes she blows up the hospital you are in. At noon she blows up your funeral."

"And then she blows up your mother's house in the evening." Signum adds. Chrono chuckles and continues.

"Nanoha continues until either she's dead, or there's nothing left to blow up."

Yuuno shivers at the thought. He is not sure what's scarier; that Nanoha is capable of doing such things, or that she has agreed to do all those dreadful things.

They look at Nanoha sleeping at the corner reserved for the flight mages, snoring lightly, bundled up under a thin wool blanket with what's left of her squadron.

"Actually, Nanoha shouldn't be flying around in Vaizen as she's doing now." Says Chrono in a rather serious tone, shaking his head. "They should lock her up in a bunker or something."

"As for me, I'd rather have her above my head than in a bunker." Signum offers her opinion. "Come to think of it, isn't Fate actually the one suited for the current situation? She is the large-scale anti-personnel weapon of-"

"But would she comply with the order?" Chrono points out the glaring flaw in Signum's suggestion. Signum thinks about it. If it was her she would, but Fate... that woman is complicated, to say the least. Especially when it comes to her clone sisters, as evidenced by-

"Hey, you want to watch this."

Agito interrupts the three. She brings up a display. A live news broadcast is running. Apparently, the Vaizen managing director is making an announcement at the doorsteps of the Sail Force HQ building. Next to him stands Hayate, fidgeting.

**#**

.

"-and after much deliberation, the Managing Directors and the Midchilda management have approved lending out their finest commanding officer for Vaizen's cause."

The Vaizen managing director announces to the reporters and the crowd gathered in front of the Sail Force HQ building. His voice is amplified and echoes around the afternoon street of Cranagan, reaching the massive protesters gathered there to demand Princess be allowed to fight. He pauses and surveys the crowd. He can sense the mood uplifting. He is delivering what they want after all.

"I thus entrust the fate of Vaizen to lieutenant general Yagami, commander of the Capital Defense Corps, the Joint Task Force, and now Vaizen Martial Law Command!"

The crowd cheers loudly as the old man gestures for Hayate to step forward. The newly appointed martial law commander comes forward and faces the Vaizen managing director.

"Lieutenant general Yagami, within the boundaries of the Bureau Charters and the military regulations, you will be free to do whatever you deem necessary to bring the calamity in Vaizen to an end."

He has to wait for the crowd to settle down. The noise is deafening. At last, he is allowed to continue.

"A great faith is being placed upon your sound judgment and conduct. Do you understand the gravity of such responsibility?"

"Yes, sir, I understand."

Hayate snaps a salute. The crowd is ecstatic, shouting "Princess! Princess!" Hayate turns around to face the cameras, and the people gathered in front of the Sail Force HQ goes quiet. She takes a deep breath before announcing:

"Dear citizens of Vaizen, I hereby declare a strict curfew outside these designated zones, as can be seen on this map..." She fumbles with her datapad, and a large holo-image of embarrassed Vita in schoolgirl uniform cosplay appears behind Hayate. The entire Bureau multiverse gasps. Not realizing her mistake, Hayate continues.

"Anyone found outside these zones...especially found in this area-" Her eyes nervously fixed on the camera in front of her, Hayate extends a hand behind her and circles around Vita's chest. "-Will be deemed an enemy of Vaizen and will be dealt with deadly forces on sight. With no warning."

Finally, somebody in the crowd breaks out in hysterical laughter. It soon spreads to everyone.

"Comply and die... oops, I mean or die. Comply or die."

The Vaizen managing director stands there with mouth agape as more and more people burst out laughing. The crowd hoots and cheers loudly. Reinforce pops up, getting in the way between Commander Yagami and the reporters. She snatches Hayate's datapad and desperately tries to change the image to the correct one. She nervously faces the cameras and tries to get things straight.

"Hello. Erm... she's worded it badly, but that wasn't actually directed at the actual Vaizen citizens-"

.

Embarrassed, Signum is face-palming hard inside her HQ hangar in Vaizen. The hangar is filled with an awkward silence as the staff members watch the newsfeed with agonizing expressions on their faces. After a big sigh, Signum waves to Agito. The little fairy-like girl nods back and gets on the comm.

"All units, we are back in business. Princess is unchained."

There's a weak cheer in the hangar that abruptly stops as the camera zooms in on Vita in schoolgirl uniform.

"This is embarrassing to watch." Chrono shakes his head. "How does she manage to mess up every time?"

"If I remember correctly, last time she was on a live broadcast her ponytail caught fire-" Yuuno recalls. He kinda liked Hayate with the long hair, but ever since the incident, she went back and has stayed on bob cut.

"No, that's the one before. You missed her skirt coming off." Chrono corrects his friend. The two gentlemen turn to Signum.

"Ah, well..." She shrugs. "It's one of her charm points. People are used to it, I guess."

**#**

.

Zafira, in his puppy form, nonchalantly enters the town, trotting on as if he is on familiar ground. Soon enough he catches the attention of the clone girls. They follow him excitedly, chatting among themselves and giggling.

He walks around the town. The occasional sights of destroyed houses and craters on the roads ruin the otherwise joyful early evening image of this small town. It doesn't take him long to find what he is looking for. A dog-house in the yard of a two-story residence. It is, of course, vacant, but it doesn't matter. Zafira makes the place his home as if he's lived here for years. He deliberately yawns, looking away from the girls gathered around his newly acquired home.

"Aw~ this must be its home." Observes a masked girl. Another one crouches down trying to meet Zafira's puppy eyes.

"It must have been hiding from all that fighting." The girl looks sorry.

"It's so cute~ whatever it is..." Another one crouches down and extends her hand.

The girls try to charm him, but Zafira plays it cool and deliberately ignores them. But then he is caught off-guard by a tall Alicia clone girl with a broken mask who steps up and picks Zafira up, checking his underside.

"It's a boy."

Zafira sniffs. This clone smells different. 'What the-'

"I have an idea!" The broken mask girl shouts excitedly. "Let's call him Zafira!"

A look of realization dawns on Zafira's puppy face. He barks and wags his tail in approval. The broken mask clone hugs the puppy tight, rubbing her face on his.

"Yes~ You like that name, right, Zafira? Good boy, good boy."

And then the other girls dive in to cuddle the puppy.

.

It's taken him an hour or so to finally set himself free of the girls. He's left his puppy home and is now tracing the scent down the street. He follows the invisible trail, and trots into a dark alley, making sure he's not seen. The Alicia clone with a broken mask is waiting in the shadows.

"Zafira, what are you doing here?"

"That's my question, Fate. I'm doing my recon thing. What are you doing here?"

Fate cranes her neck to see if anyone is around. She finds none.

"I am trying to find out what this whole invasion is about." She crouches down to pet Zafira's head. "Actually, I'm glad you are here because I cut off all comms as a precaution. Are you in contact with your unit?"

She has in fact cut all communication to the Bureau. Numerous heads of regional Executive Office across the Bureau territory kept calling her for emergency budget approval. Taking care of the evacuated Vaizen people means extra works and overtime for their Enforcers and Agents. On top of that, the media has been calling Fate non-stop. She simply cannot walk around among her clone sisters with the notification beeps going off all the time.

"I'm on a secure channel. You can relay through me when you need to." Zafira kindly offers. Fate nods in appreciation. 'Good dog.'

"So, what's the plan?"

"I'll snoop around, but-" Fate's partially covered face grimaces. "But there is a pressing matter. I need to find some food for the girls."

"Excuse me?" Zafira wonders if he has heard her right. 'She what?'

"There are thousands of them, but none of them brought anything to eat."

"You want to feed the enemy?" Zafira is baffled.

Fate hugs the puppy tight.

"Come on. Help me out, please?"

.

About ten kilometers south to the town along the coastal road sits a couple of industrial facilities. As the road runs down to south more and more such facilities would appear, and then some thirty or forty kilometers down the industrial zone would start for real. Alph and the Recon company has set up here though because sitting all the way down the road would be too far from the enemy for them to do their recon job.

Alph is talking to Zafira over the comm and she is baffled.

"You want me to do what?"

"You heard me right." Zafira's hushed voice whispers out of the comm. "There's got to be something."

"Yeah, but for five thousand..." Alph trails off, looking around. Where the heck would she find something to feed five thousand enemies? And more importantly, why? Something catches her eyes. A large sign that reads "Vaizen Canned Soups INC". She looks around and realizes she is, in fact, standing in the parking lot of a canned soup factory. 'What dumb but convenient luck' she scoffs.

**#**

.

It's the late evening in Midchilda. Hayate is sitting at her desk, hunched forward with her face on the wooden surface, arms sprawled open. Reinforce is lying on the desk next to Hayate's head, looking at the ceiling with vacant eyes. Sometimes she'd twitch at the recollection of what happened this afternoon.

"Oh god... I want to die." Hayate jerks up. "Does Vita know?"

"If she knew she'd be calling like mad." Reinforce sighs. Sooner or later Vita will find it out.

Hayate sighs, too, and goes back to her previous position; her face pressing flat on the wooden surface of the desk.

Reinforce sits up and knocks on Hayate's head with a tiny fist.

"So, now we are free to fight. What's the plan?"

Hayate rotates her head to face the little lady.

"I can't attack when Fate-chan is among them. Besides-" She sits up. "-if I push too hard now Testarossa might be tempted to send the entire clone army to Vaizen in response. I'm not yet in the position to deal with that."

"Or she might just give up?" Reinforce offers hopefully. Hayate shrugs and yawns.

"Depends on what she really wants from us." She calls Signum, whose face appears immediately.

"Signum, I'm worried about something."

"About Vita getting mad?"

Hayate winces.

"No!... Actually, yes." She shakes her head to focus on the topic. "Let's say we put up a defense so good they can't advance a single step. What would they do?"

"Hmm..." Signum rubs her chin while thinking. "It's been established Dr. Testarossa isn't a military mastermind. She most likely opts for the simplest solution."

"Which is to throw more bodies?" Asks Hayate in a tone that is more of seeking an affirmation rather than being a genuine question.

"Yes, I think so." Signum, too, is thinking. 'Two hundred thousand potential reinforcement...' That's something she does not want to come her way. "I think I better relax my defense a little." Signum suggests.

"Yes, please do." Hayate agrees. "Let's give them a false sense of progress, at least until we have some more bodies of our own in place." Hayate does a quick sweeping motion. "And then we roll in one sweep, but..." She trails off.

"But?"

"I gotta find a way to deal with Al Hazard."

.

Chrono also agrees.

"Yeah, that still leaves us with a couple hundred thousand clones in Al Hazard." He crosses his arms with an annoyed face. "A victory in Vaizen doesn't necessarily mean the end of the conflict."

"True." Signum nods in agreement. She, too, crosses her arms and leans on the hangar wall.

"Whatever the reason, Precia Testarossa wants Midchilda. She has been bruteforcing the multiverse to locate Midchilda for some time." Chrono thinks out aloud. He notices Yuuno wincing.

"And we led her to Vaizen..." Yuuno trails off.

"Even when we push her out of Vaizen, it's a matter of time she finds Midchilda." Chrono goes on. "Then we have a catastrophe." He sighs and looks at Signum. What are the options?

"Logically speaking, we'd invade Al Hazard in retaliation. Taking the fight away from our territory." Signum offers her professional opinion. "But then again she's capable of destroying our troopships from afar."

The three fall silent as each tries to think. They are disturbed by Nanoha waking up from her long sleep, yawning and stretching and scratching.

**#**

.

The senior laboratory operator is working into the late evening. She pulls out charts and reports on holo-displays above her desk. Teana is sitting next to her, eating a sandwich.

"You really had to see it right away, huh? Couldn't wait till the morning?" The tired operator complains. Thanks to Teana she is working overtime.

"Hey, people are dying out there. My friend had her face cut open last night, OK? She lost an eye." Teana takes another bite of her sandwich.

"Right. Sorry about your friend." The lab operator apologizes. "You could have at least brought one more sandwich for your other friend." She shakes her head. "That'd be me, in case you don't realize."

Teana just grins. Her other friend has finished pulling up all the results. She rubs her hands.

"OK, here it is."

Teana leans in, studying the charts and the brilliant patterns. She can't understand what she is looking at. Her friend points at a holo-display of a very complicated looking pattern of lines and shapes and dots.

"This is her composition-"

"The dead clone girl?" Teana interrupts. The senior operator nods and continues. "Then I take out Precia Testarossa's footprints." She shows another image and adds. "I had to extrapolate from the old record of Dr. Testarossa, so it's not 100% accurate."

Teana finishes her sandwich and motions for her friend to go on.

"I also compare against Alicia Testarossa, back when she was alive." The operator shows another pattern. "Again, I had to extrapolate so there's another layer of the margin of errors." She then points to yet another pattern. "Then also against Chief's snapshot. This is from the time she was fifteen-"

"Fifteen? That's too young to fight in a war." Teana comments in a sad tone. The operator agrees. She continues.

"And then I do a very complicated scientific sorcery you won't understand-" She takes out sunglasses from her desk drawer and puts them on.

"And voila!"

The first holo-image changes to an oscillating and pulsating pattern so bright it is blinding.

"Oh god! My eyes!" Teana covers her eyes. The operator giggles behind her sunglasses.

"I give you... Al Hazard!"

.

"Oh god! My eyes!" Chrono yelps in pain and covers his eyes.

"I give you... Al Hazard!" Teana puts away the offending holo-image and takes her sunglasses off. She has come back from Midchilda to Vaizen's Interworld Terminal to show this to Chrono.

Teana pulls out another image.

"This is the toned-down version."

"Damn you, Teana." Chrono blinks several times, trying to recover from the searing pain his eyes suffered. He examines the pattern. "What do we do with it?"

"Well..." Teana is not sure herself. "Boss wanted me to discuss it with you."

'What the hell?' Chrono thinks for a while. Back when he worked for the Office he was good. Very good. Probably that is why Fate instructed Teana to talk to him about this, but for now, he has no idea what to do with this piece of the analysis result.

"You talk to Fate first. She's with Zafira so relay through Rapid Response comm channel." Chrono suggests. He feels this knowledge about Al Hazard would become useful. But how?

"I... I will need to think about this a bit more."

**#**

.

Fate is sitting on the toilet inside a cubicle in the ladies' WC in the storage facility of Vaizen Canned Soups INC. Zafira is on the floor between Fate's legs, relaying the communication.

"Tell her she's done a good job extracting the data." Fate whispers into the comm.

"I will." Teana whispers back.

"It's in their linker cores, right?" Fate already has an idea.

"Should be."

"OK." Fate gives her instruction in a hushed voice. "Tell her to find a way to neutralize it en masse. Some kind of an area effect magic, perhaps." She gestures imaginary area magic. With the mass linker core neutralization, it should be possible to pacify the clone girls without hurting them. After that Enforcers and Agents could waltz in and arrest the weakened girls.

"Oh, that's a brilliant idea!" Teana quickly lowers her voice. "I will tell her to start right away. You be careful, boss."

Fate ends the comm. She walks out of the cubicle and exits to the hallway to come face to face with the senior clone girl wearing the red ribbon.

"There you are." Says the girl flatly.

Fate greets the senior with a nod. They walk down the hallway with Zafira trotting along. The red ribbon girl breaks the silence.

"We are only ten, but there are so many. I don't think we can move them all out tonight."

Fate faces the girl and smiles.

"See? I told you there's got to be something to eat somewhere."

"Yeah, you were right." The girl nods, but her eyes are fixed on Fate's. "Lucky we came looking this way."

Red Ribbon stops walking, falling behind Fate.

"How did you know?"

Fate stops and turns.

"Hmm? I just suggested a direction, and we got lucky. That's all." Fate shrugs.

The senior clone points at Zafira.

"No. I mean how do you know Zafira is a boy?"

"He's..." Fate doesn't like where this is going. "He has the thing?"

"What thing?"

'Oh boy.' A sudden chill runs down Fate's spine. She quickly glances down and notices Zafira trying his best to act as if he does not understand what the girls are talking about. Fate points at Zafira.

"Look... look for yourself."

The puppy quickly flashes a pained expression accusingly directed at Fate but manages to maintain his composure. Red Ribbon doesn't say anything nor moves. Fate can feel the piercing eyes behind the mask boring into her. And then all of sudden the senior clone girl starts walking again, taking Fate's hand in hers.

"Let's go. We have sisters to feed."

.

Alph and the recon troops are well concealed. They employ military-grade cloak magic strong enough it would be near impossible for the clone girls to detect them. Nevertheless, they keep distance, watching from far out of the perimeter of the soup factory. Using optics magic, they observe the girls coming out of the storage building, each carrying several carton boxes stacked up high. The soldiers count the boxes and read the labels to compile a record. The data will later be passed to Naval Intelligence, where the analysts will then study the nutrients data associated with each can of soup. In two or three days, Commander Yagami should find a report on her desk regarding the estimated nutrient intake of the enemy of Vaizen, and the long-term consequences on their physiology.

.

The clone sisters are happy with the canned soups the group brought back, going around sharing and commenting on different soups. Unfortunately, they cannot read the labels, and having seen, let alone tasted, the contents for the first time in their lives, they have no idea what they are eating. It doesn't stop them from digging in, though. A group of senior clones is going around distributing spoons they have appropriated from the kitchens of the abandoned houses.

There is a line formed up in front of Fate. Mostly little girls. Fate helps them open their cans. Her broken mask cannot hide the big warm smile on her face as she blissfully watches the little sisters excited by this newly acquired delicacy. A few steps behind her, Red Ribbon girl watches Fate with curious eyes.

**#**

.

Deputy Director Harlaown paces around in the hangar much to the soldiers' annoyance. It's well past midnight and those who are not on duty are trying to get some sleep. Chrono is immersed in deep thought, mumbling to himself. He abruptly stops and initiates a call to Hayate. He has come to the same conclusion as Hayate did. Al Hazard must be dealt with no matter what.

.

Teana rides an army issue motorbike on a dark road. She is returning from the field hospital after paying a short visit to Subaru. There wasn't much to talk about nor do as Shamal has sedated Subaru to sleep.

"She's nothing but trouble!" Shamal complained to Teana. Apparently, the hyperactive woman-child cannot stay still in her bed.

Teana reaches the Terminal. After clearing a series of checkpoints, she enters the hangar, taking the helmet off.

"Teana, when are you leaving? I've been thinking." Chrono comes over immediately.

"I'm leaving right away. Why?"

Chrono leads Teana to a secluded corner of the hangar.

"Look, I like Fate's idea, but it's not enough." Says Chrono in a hushed voice.

"Not enough? What do you mean?" Teana sounds a bit annoyed. Weaken the girls' linker cores and bag them when they are pacified. It sounds like a very good plan to Teana.

"Yeah, it's a good plan." Chrono admits. "But there are two hundred thousand more in Al Hazard. They will come."

"Hmm... yes, you are right. They will come." Teana sees the point. "I guess we will just have to repeat until they are all in jail." She tries to leave but Chrono stops her.

"Do we even have enough jail space?" He shakes his head. "That's not the main issue, though. Listen, don't forget Precia Testarossa prints out those clones for free. Al Hazard grants her virtually unlimited resources!"

Teana finally gets it.

"Hang on. That means-"

"The war in Vaizen will never end!"

Teana, shocked, leans in closer. She lowers her voice to a whisper.

"What do we do?"

"I don't know. For now, at least..." He looks around to make sure no one is listening in. "I talked with Hayate. She's started drafting an invasion plan."

"Jeez..."

Chrono puts a hand up.

"But she has also ordered me to come up with an alternative solution. To deal with Al Hazard."

"She can order you?" Teana is honestly impressed. Hayate has gone up the rank for real.

"She can order anyone at this point." Chrono just shrugs. "Anyway, you follow up on Fate's idea. For now. I have a feeling the key to everything lies in there somewhere, so keep that in mind."

"OK, I will." Teana promises.

**#**

.

Nanoha and Captain Ru Lusche are taking a break from flying. They sit outside a large mobile structure that is Ginga's portable command office. They sit cross-legged on the ground, sipping coffees, not talking much.

Captain Ru Lusche's eyes linger on her group leader's blood smeared combat uniform. She tries to say something but hesitates. In fact, she has been hesitating for a good half an hour. Nanoha has had enough.

"Go on, Caro. What is it?"

Caro musters up her courage.

"Madam, you stink."

Nanoha sighs.

"I can't disagree. I'm such a bad leader-"

"No!" Caro interrupts. "I mean you literally smell bad!"

.

Colonel Ginga Nakajima walks out of her portable office structure with a mug in a hand, just in time to find Nanoha sniffing herself.

"What's this? A new fetish?" Ginga inquires.

"Caro here tells me I smell bad?" Nanoha sniffs some more.

"You do indeed." Ginga admits. "Don't tell me you are doing that cleansing thing again-"

"What? No. Fate doesn't allow me." Nanoha pulls her uniform shirt and sniffs inside. "I just haven't washed for some days."

Ginga points at the night sky.

"Vaizen Air is up there. Why don't you go take a shower? Get some sleep, too."

"But I slept through the whole day! Besides-" Nanoha refuses. She gestures towards the seaside. "-Fate is out there. She's probably still awake, trying to figure out what they are up to."

.

The town is engulfed in darkness and is quiet as it should be at this late hour. A little masked girl thrashes around on the floor of the pitch-black living room in one of the houses left behind by the townsfolk. She cannot sleep over the noise. She can't take it anymore and stands up. She fumbles her way over to the couch where a long figure lying on it is emitting an unbearable noise. The little girl whacks the sleeping head and the snoring stops. Satisfied, the girl gets down and lies on the floor. As soon as she settles down and shuts her eyes, the snoring starts anew.

.

"I need to stay awake... in case she needs my help." Says Nanoha, throwing her gaze into the dark night air, to east.

Caro looks at the older woman with envy filled eyes.

"How romantic..." She observes in awe.

"How is YOUR romance going?" Ginga asks Caro "Any progress?"

The young captain shakes her head in frustration.

"I went to see him during the evening chow, but..." Caro shakes her small fist in the air. "He's still as dense as a brick! Grrr!"

"Jeez! How many years have you two been like this?" Ginga is well aware of Caro's love interest and the lack of progress this young lady has had.

"You know what, Caro? Just beat him up into pulp, and he will finally get it." Ginga points at Nanoha. "Ask her, she's the expert."

"Hey!" Nanoha protests, feigning innocence.


	10. 10: What Masks?

Hayate has stayed up all night, thinking about what to do. She is finally allowed to fight, but she is afraid of the possibility of two hundred thousand clone army coming over to Vaizen as a response to Hayate's hard offensive.

The potential threat of reinforcement coming from Al Hazard must be taken out of the equation either before or at the same time Hayate clears Vaizen. The only alternative is to take the fight to Al Hazard, which will rapidly erode the public support in a matter of days, especially because the war objective is so… vague.

For Hayate, the objective of the war is not about holding the enemy off. Battles may be won or lost today, but her ultimate goal as the defending side is to ensure there is no battle to fight tomorrow. She has to make it so that people can return to their daily lives without having to worry about soldiers and clone girls killing each other a few blocks down the street.

War should end when it is no longer worth the trouble. Often it is so because one side has lost too many resources to justify whatever the value the initial war goals offered. Hayate knows such resources given to her are not limited to lives and materials committed as war efforts. They could be anything; The capacity to train soldiers and procure materials, the public support backing the wartime administration, the faith placed upon her command, the collective will of the society to keep fighting, and the tolerance towards sons and daughters coming back home either in pieces or in coffins, etc., etc. All those things add up to form a giant pool which the soldiers like Hayate herself drain each and every day. Unless rallied anew, the pool will eventually be depleted.

If she does really take the fight to Al Hazard, the fighting in Vaizen would eventually die down. But how many worlds in the Bureau's territory would welcome the idea of having their men and women die for Vaizen's cause, invading a never-heard-before place on the other side of the multiverse? If Hayate is really going to do it, she would have to quickly deliver a decisive blow to Precia Testarossa. Otherwise, the conflict will drag on and the rest of the Bureau members will eventually start to think maybe giving up on Vaizen would have been the better option.

But then, what is her counterpart, Precia Testarossa, draining? Hayate grimaces. Testarossa wants something in Midchilda but is fighting in Vaizen. For what?

'What the fuck does she want and at what cost?'

What kind of a loss would it take to convince Testarossa it no longer is worth the trouble? Hayate is frustrated for not knowing.

So, unless the situation changes, she is stuck with holding Vaizen ground as best as she can. Hayate knows she has to rely on everyone doing their job right. The Bureau has to muster up the promised reinforcement in time. Executive Office has to get Vaizen people out of harm's way before it is too late. Even Sail Force, who's not really doing much at this point, has to keep their eyes on the Al Hazard-Vaizen path. And Fate, who has been completely outside Hayate's control up to this point 'Oh god, Fate, why are you doing this to me?', Fate better behave herself and stop causing any more troubles. And her soldiers, the men and women and puppies on the front line, have to trust her judgment and do their job right. The entire Bureau system has to work as a team; like a clockwork.

.

Precia has just returned from her morning brief at the portal. Sitting in her throne room on the top floor of the Ziggurat, she leans back and closes her eyes to go over what she has heard from her girls in Vaizen.

The clone girls have reported a victory that secured some free space westwards. That was pleasing news.

However, the soldiers attacking the portal was worrisome news. Not because she is worried about it being destroyed. She has made sure such is not possible. What worries her is that the attack has reminded her the portal was opened by the Bureau, not her. That means they know the coordinate, which she should have realized days ago. If push comes to shove they might be tempted to bring the fight over here by invading her home, trying to distract her from Vaizen. She will have to be on alert and thwart any such attempts.

She was also a little surprised to hear the girls took care of the food problem themselves. On one hand, she is slightly relieved the girls are acting autonomously over there in Vaizen. That means she does not have to spare a second or two thinking about the matter. On the other hand, she is equally worried. What next would the girls decide on their own? She makes a mental note. When this is all done and over, she'd have to dilute the new traits the girls in Vaizen bring back home. The last thing she wants is the clone sisters getting funny ideas in their heads-

'Hang on…'

When this is over she would no longer need the clone girls. 'Why am I thinking about what to do with them afterward?'

She opens her eyes and stands up. Walking out of her throne room, she makes her way down to the Curing chamber deep inside the Ziggurat; a vast space filled with rows of sleeping clone girls encapsulated in magical lights. The masked girls working there greet her with polite bows. Precia walks across the room, checking on the works in progress, trying to avoid looking at the yet to be masked sleeping faces.

Each batch of the clones undergoes the accelerated aging and curing process at a different condition to ensure they come out with varying ages. Precia has long ago realized homogeneity is detrimental to advancement. The variation in maturity and growth brings progress within the clone sisters' peer learning process and prevent it from going stale. The younger ones would provide refreshing views on how things are and should be done, whereas the elders would provide tried and tested guidance. Overall it results in the girls getting more autonomous, more productive, and more efficient in a controlled manner. The purpose; serving their mother.

She is sure the Bureau should have by now realized they are dealing with an army of clones. She can imagine the soldiers, curious, unmasking dead girls after a battle.

'No matter.' She smirks. Even if they saw the faces, they would not have the faintest idea whose clones the girls are. After all, nobody has seen Alicia for nearly four decades. There is not a single soul other than herself who'd recognize Alicia's face. Actually, yes, there indeed is one. However judging by the violent way it was caught red-handed hunting lost Logia, that good for nothing useless brat is rotting in a maximum-security prison, forgotten by the rest of the worlds. This leads her to conclude the Bureau most likely does not know they are dealing with Precia Testarossa. And this is important, she thinks to herself. Once they learn about her identity they would put two and two together and ruin her plan. A simple relocation of the goalpost would make all her efforts go to waste.

In this sense, the Bureau soldiers absolutely must not learn that her goal is to reach Midchilda. Thankfully she is sure she got that worry covered. As much as she hates the fake abominations, she is confident the girls will never allow themselves to be captured and interrogated. She has spent a long enough time with the clones to know that the sisterhood is the only thing they have. Each and every single one of them would rather die fighting than to be dragged away from her sisters.

This, on the other hand, infuriates the mother and makes her loathe her girls even more. The fake monsters have their sisters as a big family. What does she have? She is angry at herself for feeling lonely and isolated. The clones should not have any place in her heart, yet she has realized the deeply buried feeling inside is her envious longing. She, too, wishes to be a part. Precia is smart and rational enough to recognize this emotion as is and she won't deny it. She has just decided to reject it. She had given it a try a long time ago, and it just hurt her even more because that dumb idiot brat just was not the real thing. All that matters to her, in the end, is not the fakes but her own real daughter, Alicia.

.

Fate waits outside the perimeter of the ruined Staging Dock, craning her neck over the scattered debris to see the senior girls returning from the gate. It is still very early in the morning and the low sun casts long shadows as the girls pass her by. Fate casually joins the group for a chat.

"What did mother say?"

She asks a senior clone, whom she had beforehand noted to be somewhat talkative. This girl seems to be in a good mood.

"Mother is very pleased we made good progress." The senior girl is cheerful. Fate can tell this one is beaming a smile behind the mask.

"I think she was surprised we found foods on our own."

"That's nice." Fate nods with a smile. "What else?"

"Hmm…" The senior Alicia clone goes over this morning's reporting session in her head. "Just the usual. We need to reach Midchilda." She shrugs.

'Good, good.' Fate thinks to herself. So far, the conversation has gone according to her steering. Now she has to get to the point. Fate scratches her unkempt head.

"Just… what exactly do we do in Midchilda?"

The senior clone stops, and blinks, staring at Fate who tries to remain calm. 'Was I suspicious?'

"There is this… "The girl tries to think of the word. "What's it called?" She turns to the Red Ribbon who has been walking behind them in silence.

"Library. We go to the library." The red ribbon girl answers.

"Library? Why?" asks Fate, trying to hide her confusion. 'What the hell? Library in Midchilda?' Her heart is thumping hard.

"And what's a library?" Fate adds, trying to appear dumb.

The first senior clone shrugs.

"It's a place filled with books. Lots of books." She extends her arms both sides as if to show Fate 'this many'. The girl continues. "Mother wants it, so we go get it. But-"

"But?" Fate gulps. This sounds important.

"But I don't know what we'd do with the books? I mean none of us-"

"Let's get going." The red ribbon girl interrupts in a sharp tone. "We have to move the rest of the cans from that soup place."

Fate, of course, wants to continue talking, but there is something cautious about Red Ribbon. She decides to let it go for now.

The ladies resume walking. Fate spots the tiny spec of Zafira far ahead, waiting for her return. She has to get on the comm as soon as possible.

**#**

.

Naval Intelligence's deputy director Chrono Harlaown is still asleep on the floor by the wall of the large hangar. He is woken up by Yuuno shaking him vigorously. He yawns and checks the time. It's still god-awful early in the morning, which makes him annoyed.

"What's the matter, Yuuno?"

Professor Scrya points at Signum approaching with two steaming mugs in her hands, careful not to spill the contents.

"Signum wants to talk to us. You and me."

Signum hands over the mugs to the two gentlemen and brings a nearby stool over to sit on. Her eyes have dark circles and are bloodshot from the fatigue, but wide and a tiny bit crazy from whatever stimulants she has been pumping in to keep herself awake. Despite the appearance, her manners remain calm and composed as expected of the leader of the Wolkenritters.

.

"Good morning. Let's talk here. It's quieter." Signum starts the session, settling down.

"What gives?" Chrono sits up on the floor, looking up at the major general. Yuuno is squatting beside him enjoying the strong coffee.

"A message from your sister relayed through Zafira. Precia Testarossa wants Infinity Library." Signum gets straight to the point. "Any idea why?"

Yuuno chokes and coughs up coffee all over the place. It takes a moment before he can talk again. The Chief Librarian is obviously in shock.

"My library?"

"Why the hell?" Chrono, too, is confused.

"That's what I'm asking." Signum shrugs. "You are the analysts here."

Yuuno is still in disbelief. Never once in his life as the head of Infinity Library has he imagined his rows of bookshelves would be a war objective. The idea is so absurd it is impossible to believe.

"Let me get this straight. She's bruteforced the multiverse, and invaded Vaizen, just to visit Infinity Library? My library in Midchilda?" Yuuno tries to get his head around this piece of information. "If she's looking for a book, she could have just sent a query!"

"It's unlikely the library is the final objective." Signum offers a more realistic assessment. "Maybe she really needs a book or two for something else."

Chrono, the third best expert on the topic of Precia Testarossa next to his adopted sister Fate and Fate's familiar Alph, thinks about it. When it comes to Testarossa…

"We are talking about Precia Testarossa. Her goal always has been, and always will be the revival of dead Alicia." He nudges Yuuno by his side. "Don't tell me you have a book on that."

"Nope." Yuuno shakes his head. "There is no such book as 'How to revive my dead daughter'…" He takes out his datapad and pulls out an index display. He quickly goes through the rows and rows of entries.

"Welp, OK, there are some early-stage research papers from a long time ago." He admits with a grimace. "Guess who wrote them? Dr. Testarossa herself."

It is unlikely Testarossa wants the library to retrieve her own academic papers. There must be something else she wants.

"Those papers must be from shortly after Alicia died." Chrono leans over Yuuno's shoulder to have a look at the index but gives up at the sight of the incomprehensible interface. "What else did she write?" He asks.

Yuuno does a query and browses through the results.

"Lots of works on Project F… before it was banned, of course. Well, after all, she is the one who completed Scaglietti's theoretical framework."

Signum winces at the mention of the Project Fate and Dr. Jail Scaglietti. No good has ever come out of the works of that evil scientist. Except Fate, of course.

"What do you think?" Signum asks. "Is Testarossa going to try the Project Fate approach once again?"

"Nah~" Chrono doesn't think so. "She knows it doesn't work. Otherwise, she wouldn't be pumping out the clones like some cheap products. They are made for some other purpose."

"To subdue the Bureau's resistance, perhaps? For when she does reach Midchilda and my library?" Yuuno suggests.

"Makes sense." Signum nods. "She likely thought we won't let her have whatever she's seeking."

Chrono, too, nods in agreement. The three remain silent for a while, thinking and waiting. Chrono exchanges glance with Signum and finally breaks the silence.

"Yuuno? We are kinda waiting for you to confess. What you are hiding in the library?"

The Chief Librarian looks offended. Chrono continues before Yuuno has a chance to protest the accusation.

"Something so important, Testarossa is sure we will use force to prevent her from getting it. So, she builds a whole fucking army. What is in the library?"

"And something to do with her dead daughter. What's Infinity Library to her?" Signum chimes in.

"I'm telling you! It's just a library! With books!" Yuuno rages. "Infinite number of books…" He trails off. A look of realization dawns on the Professor's face. Then shock. Then disbelief.

"Oh, god. She can't be serious."

Professor Yuuno Scrya has realized what Precia Testarossa wants. The idea, once again, is horrendous.

"Spill it out, man." Chrono urges the Chief Librarian to continue.

Yuuno is shaken, concerned and disgusted at what Testarossa plans to do with his library.

"There is a reason it's called Infinity Library. The library itself is a Logia."

Chrono is lost. The library is a Logia? OK. That sort of makes sense because… well, the infinite capacity of knowledge. But so, what? It is not like Testarossa needs a Logia like the Jewel Seeds to reach Al Hazard. She IS already in Al Hazard.

"Look, Testarossa went to Al Hazard." Yuuno explains. "To lay her hands on the magic source, right? She has all the magic she needs, but Alicia is still dead. Why?"

Yuuno looks back and forth between Signum and Chrono. They shrug.

"She doesn't know! That's why she wants the knowledge! She's gonna consume my library!"

He presents his right hand, its palm facing up.

"Unlimited magic source; Al Hazard."

He does the same with his left hand.

"Infinite knowledge; Infinity Library."

Yuuno clasps his two hands together.

"Alicia Testarossa."

"What?!" Signum is stunned. "So, you can really bring a dead person back to life?"

Yuuno and Chrono answer at the same time.

"No."

**#**

.

"-and think of it as an equation."

Chrono takes out a datapad and writes. It's late morning just before noon and he is in Teana's office in Midchilda after having spent the good bit of the morning traveling from Vaizen. Yuuno accompanied him up to the Midchilda's gate but went on to do his own stuff at the library. Chrono is sure Yuuno is busy packing 'good books' right now… just in case.

Teana leans over her desk to see Chrono writing an equation on his pad.

"Dead Alicia plus Al Hazard plus Infinity Library equals undead Alicia."

"I don't know…' Teana says reluctantly. "'Undead' is a bit… Let's call it revived Alicia."

Chrono gives her a 'are you for real?' look, then shakes his head.

"Whatever, Teana. The equation is already set in Testarossa's head." The whole point of the invasion, according to Chrono, is to plug in the missing variable into the equation; Infinity Library.

Teana leans back on her seat deep in thought.

"Shouldn't you be talking this to Hayate? Or your mom?"

"I will, after I'm done with you."

Teana drums her fingers on the desk. She sighs.

"You came all the way, so it hurts me to say this, but there isn't much the Office can do about those variables."

There really isn't much the Office can do. Al Hazard is out of reach. Alicia is in Testarossa's hand.

"Best we can do is to recommend to the Management that the library be relocated to a safer location."

"And how do we even tell her the library is no longer in Midchilda? And will she give up?" Chrono shakes his head. "The fundamental issue here is that she truly believes the equation is valid."

Reviving Alicia is impossible. Period. But Precia Testarossa sincerely believes once she plugs in all the necessary variables into the equation it will work. It is insane, to say the least, but had Testarossa any sanity left in her the whole Jewel Seed incident wouldn't have happened in the first place. Her entire life is built upon her desperate hope out of grievance; something that makes even Chrono sad. He continues, feeling depressed. He wants to go home and hug his twin kids.

"If we move the library out of her reach, she will continue to seek it. That leaves us with an everlasting danger of another invasion."

.

Teana and Chrono are sitting on stools next to the Senior Laboratory Operator, looking at the holo-displays she has brought up.

"It was a cute idea from Chief, but no, it's not as simple as that." The lab operator feels sorry to disappoint her two guests.

"Are you saying we can't neutralize the linker cores?" asks Chrono, an ex-Enforcer and the brother of the head of Executive Office.

"In theory, sir, it can be done. In theory."

"And in practice?" Teana asks this time.

The Office's scientist shrugs.

"The technical side is not the problem here. You have a magic source; An input." She puts up a hand. She wiggles the fingers as she goes on. "You modulate it, gate it, shape it, phase invert it...then somehow let it interact with the clones-"

"Some form of an area effect magic-" Chrono butts in but is ignored.

"It's a very difficult manipulation." Apparently, only a handful of people are known to be capable of doing such complex manipulation solo, and one of them is currently invading Vaizen.

"But we can do it if we throw in enough computational power." The operator adds.

Teana and Chrono look at each other. 'So, what's the problem?'

The lab operator puts on sunglasses. Before her two guests realize what is happening, she brings up the unfiltered version of the blindingly bright magic pattern.

"God damn it!" Teana covers her eyes in pain. Chrono doubles down with his hands on his face.

"That was Al Hazard." She puts away the offending image and takes sunglasses off. "A tiny fraction of the actual Al Hazard to be exact, but still an enormous magic power is locked in those linker cores."

"Is that why there are so strong?" Asks Teana. Her friend shakes the head.

"No. They are just born strong." She continues to the topic of mass neutralization. To nullify the clone girls' linker cores, they have to interact with something equivalent in amplitude, the operator in charge of Executive Office's Investigation Lab explains.

"In simpler terms, please." Teana pleads.

"OK. Let's say, in terms of the power scale, what's locked in a clone's linker core is a 10. We want to reduce that 10 to a 0. Are you following me?"

The two guests slowly nod, processing the information in their heads.

"So Chief Enforcer's idea is that we introduce a -10 to the equation, and the result is a 0 like we wanted."

The operator explains. With enough computational resources thrown in, they can turn a 10 to a -10. But the core problem is;

"Where do we get our 10 from?"

The two guests now understand what the problem is.

"How much do we need? Do we even have that kinda power source?" Teana asks with a bit of hope in her voice. Her friend sighs.

"We are talking about neutralizing more than thousands of these linker cores. The power requirement would be equivalent to Commander Yagami going Bookworm."

"Aw, fuck!" Chrono cusses.

"Exactly, sir." The senior operator nods. "We nuke Vaizen to generate enough power source to pacify the clone army? Great! Wait, oh well, they are all dead."

Teana's shoulders sag. 'This sucks.'

"It's a cute idea, really." The operator comments. According to her, the only time it will result in something sensible is if it was done in Al Hazard, using Al Hazard's magic as the input source. Otherwise, it would make more sense to just nuke the clone army in Vaizen.

"I mean… I'm not a war strategist, but just saying…" She adds sheepishly.

.

Teana and Chrono leave the laboratory and are on their way down to the lobby. Chrono has an appointment with Hayate and needs to leave shortly. They stop at the main entrance before saying goodbye.

"So, do we scrap boss's idea?" asks Teana, rather upset.

"I still see the potential. Remember we gotta deal with Al Hazard anyway." Says Chrono.

"Yea, but how are we going to pull it off?"

Chrono is deep in thought, muttering to himself thinking out aloud. Do it in Al Hazard using AL Hazard magic…

"It could work."

"You sound like you have a plan?" Teana senses he is up to something. Chrono hesitates but then decides to share the idea with Teana. If it is to be carried out, somebody from the Office has to help anyway.

"I do. I think I have an idea how to convince Precia Testarossa this invasion is pointless."

"What, get rid of Infinity Library?" Says Teana half-jokingly.

"No." Chrono shakes his head. "Listen, I need you to promise me you keep this secret from my sister."

"Fate? Why?"

"One. Because the idea kinda branched out from her original plan to neutralize the linker cores. She will not forgive herself when she learns of it." He then takes a deep breath. "Two. What I'm about to propose is… if she finds out, she's going to be so upset she will never forgive me nor you." His face is serious. "In fact, she'd wish both of us burnt to death."

Teana raises her eyebrows. What is this man thinking?

"So basically, you want me to go against Fate's wishes and do something very dreadful." She asks to confirm.

"Yes, sorry I'm asking you of all people. I know you are very loyal to her… but this will free her from the past once and for all."

Teana thinks about it for a while. For Fate's sake…

"For boss, I do anything. What can I do for you?"

Chrono looks around to see if anyone is listening. He lowers his voice.

"There is certain someone in your maximum-security prison. I need you to convince him to help us."

Teana takes a step back, frowning in disbelief.

"Jail fucking Scaglietti. It's him, isn't it?"

**#**

.

Colonel Nakajima's Regiment has been under attack this whole afternoon. The invaders are pressing hard but are not making much progress.

Captain Ru Lusche's 2nd squadron is providing anti-ground air support. Riding on the back of her dragon Friedrich, she skims over the ground; the white dragon belting fire down, sweeping what's still standing with its mighty forearms. The rest of her squadron follows in the trail, raining death from above.

Some brave clones rise up in the air to challenge the dragon, only to be swatted down by Nanoha's 1st squadron, or what's left of it, providing escort to their colleagues.

.

Nanoha dives solo through a group of Fates from their high and behind. She wants to confirm something. When she zips past the surprised girls, she quickly taps one on the face. As suspected the contact makes a satisfying 'tonk' instead of a meaty 'whack' or a 'thud'. The surprised face explodes to a bloody mist. Nanoha gets away from the angry Fates and finishes them off from a safe distance.

She is confused. At first, she suspected the Fate girls are hard clay dolls. But that does not explain the blood and organs she has seen. These Fates are definitely humans. But no matter how thick-skinned they are, nobody has such hard faces capable of making that sound on impact. She is confused. Nanoha shakes her head. Worrying about the physiology of the enemy isn't really her job. She has other things to do.

A man belonging to her squadron approaches her.

"Madam, you are flying a bit too up close and personal today."

"I just wanted to check something." Nanoha shrugs him off, surveying the air for the next target.

.

The masked girls are panicking as Caro steers the dragon deep and low above the mass of Alicia clones, leaving a long strip of charred ground and bodies below.

"It's coming this way!"

A little sister yells in fear. The girls are scared; screaming, they try to scatter. The little girl, her eyes behind the mask wild with fear, tries to get away from the coming dragon but a tall sister grabs her from running.

"Don't run! Stay close to me!"

Fate shouts to the girls running past her.

"Stay on me!"

The little girl desperately tries to free herself and get away from Friedrich's path. Fate pushes her down hard with one hand and gives an assuring smile.

"I keep you safe."

Holding the whimpering little sister down with one hand, Fate stands tall and looks straight at the incoming dragon. When Friedrich belts out his incendiary breath, she raises her free hand high. At the same time, the red ribbon girl runs in with her barrier fully deployed. She tries to shield the little sister from the deadly flame with her own body.

.

A sudden magical discharge from the ground completely blocks Friedrich's fire. Not only that, but a pulsing wavefront hits so hard Caro and her 2nd squadron are repelled as if bouncing off an invisible dome.

"What the-"

Caro is annoyed at having her attack bounce off just like that. She turns her dragon for another try.

"Oh, no! No, no, no! Why are you here!"

Nanoha is suddenly going mental on the comm much to everyone's confusion. Caro looks around the sky to see whom Nanoha is referring to. She finds nothing out of ordinary; just the Bureau flight mages and some airborne enemies. She brushes it off and guides her dragon for another run at the problematic spot, this time belting white-hot flame even harder than before. The attack is accompanied by her squadron throwing their own death magic down. Yet again, a barrier even thicker than before completely negates the impressive firepower thrown at the spot. Caro is about to cuss when from down below electric yellow beams shoot up into the air; forming a symbol of lines, curves, and dots arranged in a gabbled pattern. Caro calls her wingman immediately.

"That must be an order signal! It's a command post! Send the coordinate. Call for a cannon strike!"

Her wingman initiates the comm to Ginga's regiment, while Captain Ru Lusche makes another attempt at obliterating the particular spot, but to no avail. Frustrated, Caro bites her lips. Suddenly Nanoha's angry voice fills her comm.

"Dragonling, disengage!"

"But madam, that's a command post!" Caro protests. Just what is up with the White Devil today?

"Shut the fuck up! Disengage immediately!"

Caro is taken aback by this sudden outburst, visibly upset. Nanoha has never yelled at her let alone use the f-word directed at Caro. Something is definitely not right.

Nanoha flies over the particular spot on the battlefield. She releases a pink flare as she passes by. Her menacing voice fills the local communication channel.

"Anyone shoots anything in this sector, I'll fucking kill you!"

"White Devil, what the hell-" Bug Boy tries to reason with the White Devil, but is drowned by Nanoha screaming into the comm.

"Fate is down there, you fuckwits!" The White Devil has made a turn and comes to a stop mid-air, hovering high above the alleged position, with her arms outstretched.

"It was in Kanji! she was saying 'I'm here'"

'How am I supposed to know Kanji?' Caro grumbles, but then she remembers the cannon strike. She quickly calls her wingman.

"Quick! Call off the strike!"

.

Ginga panics. She yells at her staff to abort the fire mission, but it is too late. She hears her howitzer battery firing from their position far behind the command post. She counts three rounds, then the battery abruptly comes to silence as the message finally goes through.

"Shit…" Ginga gets on the comm. "Three rounds on the way!"

.

Flying fast in the intercept course of the shell's trajectory, Nanoha shoots down an incoming cannon round from afar. But the magical projectiles are too fast. She manages to down one more before the last round is about to fly past just meters away from her. Desperate, she reaches out and strikes the passing shell; the resulting mid-air explosion swallows the White Devil much to everyone's horror.

"No!"

Caro is horrified. She throws a hateful look down at the clone enemy who is cheering loudly, but then she sees her wingman pointing at the smoke cloud with his mouth agape. Captain Ru Lusche, shocked, shivers in raw fear at the sight of her group leader flying out of the smoke unhurt, as if nothing happened.

"That's fucking impossible!" Bug Boy utters in the comm in disbelief. Caro is sure she heard the girls on the ground groan collectively in disappointment. She turns her eyes to Nanoha again. The White Devil is circling over the hostile area, her shape illuminated by the pink flare. Nanoha is all alone above the enemy, but nobody dares to challenge her in the air. Caro feels a chill run down her spine. She has known Nanoha for over a decade. Yet, it has never occurred to her to wonder; just what kind of a monster is this woman?

.

Fate watches her friend circling in the air. She can tell Nanoha is pissed. Seriously pissed. A loud enraged voice, magically amplified, fills the area and echoes around the plain.

"What are you doing on the front line?!"

Fate winces at the tone of the voice. She is sure to get some hands-on-waist and frowning-face scolding session when this is all over. 'Better brush up on my endearing expression just in case.'

The clones start to retreat. As bodies run past her, Fate looks down. Red Ribbon is on her knees, hugging the little sister in her arms, looking up. The eyes behind the mask are fixed on the undercover Enforcer.

The little sister is crying. Having Friedrich breath fire down on her face three times in a row is bad enough of an experience requiring a new pair of pants. And the much-feared flying devil hovering high above her head isn't helping either. Fate gets down on her knees and hugs her two sisters. She ruffles the little one's head.

"I told you I keep you safe."

.

Nanoha is hovering high in the air, searching the ground using optics magic. Her 1st squadron keeps the distance and leaves her alone, thinking 'she's a bit cranky today.' One of them suggests maybe it's the day of the month, and they just accept it as is. They understand. If the White Devil, oops… If White Wing says Chief Enforcer, her lesb-, oops… her special friend is down there somewhere, then yeah, she has every right to be angry at people throwing shits down there.

Nanoha combs the ground trying to locate Fate, but she can't. There simply are too many Fate-chan running on the ground. She has spotted a trio of them bundled up together, hugging, apparently comforting a little Fate aged around nine or ten crying her eyes out.

"Good girls, she said." Nanoha talks to herself. She moves her eyes to another area in search of her dear Fate.

**#**

.

Signum's call to report today's battle has actually interrupted Hayate in the middle of talking to Chrono. The Rapid Response division's commander apologized profusely, but Hayate and Chrono didn't mind so Signum was allowed to make her report while Chrono sat there across Hayate's desk listening silently.

"Very well done. Tell Ginga she's done a good job." Says Hayate to Signum's hologram face. "But now let's get ready to pull back a little. Draw them out slowly."

"Understood." Signum nods. "Sorry to have interrupted your meeting."

Chrono didn't mind so he tells her so.

"Are you and Professor coming back?" the Wolkenritter general in Vaizen asks. The two intelligence analysts are always welcome to help her out.

"I'd love to, but the Directorate needs me in the office. I think it's the same for Yuuno. We've been away for too long. Thanks for everything, Signum."

Signum nods then salutes her boss.

.

Hayate ends the comm and gets back on the topic, thinking.

"Consume Infinity Library, you say? Then what the hell is she doing in Vaizen? Why not just make a jump?"

By now everyone knows Testarossa has been actively searching for Midchilda before invading Vaizen. Chrono grimaces.

"And we've accidentally led her to Vaizen. One thing for sure is Testarossa still does not have the fix on Midchilda."

"OK. So, she can't make a direct jump to Midchilda from Al Hazard." Hayate is a little confused. Why fight in Vaizen at all? "And it looks like she can't make the jump from Vaizen either. Why not just withdraw? Why not go back to the multiverses bruteforcing thing again?"

In all rational sense that would have been the logical choice for Testarossa, but Chrono knows the woman is not rational.

"I think Vaizen is too close to Midchilda for her to give up. She's this close. Hard to back down." He leans in on the desk. "Tell me about her maneuvers. Has she gone any other directions than straight towards inland westward?"

Hayate has to think about it for a second. Now that he mentions it…

"Some of them did go south to raid a soup factory or something, but other than that no other significant movement." That has been puzzling many tacticians and strategists in the Bureau's armed forces. The heart of Vaizen's economy is right there, but the invaders are not doing anything about it. Not that the Bureau would let them take it unopposed, but still…

"In general, they are just charging along a straight line. To the west."

"And why do you think is that?" Asks Chrono. He has his own explanation but wants to hear Hayate's first.

"We think they are heading straight to the capital city." The veteran soldier answers matter of factly. What other explanation is there? "Capture and bargain. Demand we surrender… or access to Midchilda, perhaps?"

Chrono shakes his head.

"Again, you are viewing things from a general's perspective." He points to the map of Vaizen floating above a corner of Hayate's desk. "To you, it's a war. To Testarossa, it's just getting you guys out of her way."

"I give up." Hayate throws her hands in defeat. "Just tell me already."

Chrono manipulates his device and pulls out a display showing rows and rows of tabulated records.

"Before that… disaster in her life, she had made many trips around the multiverse." He highlights some entries in the record table. "Lectures, conferences, seminars, holidays, etc."

Hayate leans in to read the records. As a prominent scientist, Dr. Testarossa had indeed traveled a lot. But what's that got to do with the war in Vaizen?

"Precia Testarossa was a civilian. A damn good scientist, but still a civilian. Not a trained transdimensional navigator." Chrono pulls out Testarossa's profile and highlights her academic and career records. "She doesn't know how to navigate to Midchilda from Al Hazard, but what she knows is-" He again points at the Vaizen map. "She knows there is a transdimensional pathways switch controlling the region's teleportation network. That's where she is heading."

Hayate slams on the desk.

"God damned Interworld Terminal!"

Chrono nods and puts his finger on the map; the Terminal.

"Yeah. She wants to hook the Vaizen-Al Hazard path onto the switchboard here. Once done, she can route the path to Midchilda."

Hayate face-palms. She has hoped that once the evacuation is complete there wouldn't be the need to station her forces at the Terminal any longer. That would have allowed her to bring the base more to the east and relieve Signum from having to operate her division in some 100km depth. But if the Terminal is the objective… Hayate is stuck there until she gets plenty of divisions to spare. She grits her teeth and throws a hateful look at the Vaizen map. 'Wait a moment-'

"Hang on." She realizes something. "Didn't you have one at the Staging Dock?"

Chrono chuckles and makes a gesture; 'kaboom!'

"Helios blowing up brought down the entire network on the coast side." He grins. Precia Testarossa most likely doesn't even know how unlucky she is. "See, Naval Intelligence does something useful every now and then."

**#**

.

Teana takes a seat at a small table placed in the middle of an equally small room. Across the table sits Dr. Jail Scaglietti. The man has aged well, Teana notes. Shaved clean, hair trimmed and combed neatly, and more importantly a hint of inner-peace on his face, except for the occasional glimmer of madness in his eyes.

"Long time no see, Enforcer Lanster. You look very tired."

Teana rubs her eyes.

"I don't get much sleep these days. There is a war going on in Vaizen."

Besides, coming all the way to Gruen High-Security Orbital Prison is a really taxing journey. She first had to take the long-distance jump to this uninhabited world, with the associated vomiting, of course. As an Enforcer Teana comes to this world often enough she has the Agents store a bottle of mouthwash for her at the gate. However, this time she came to find the bottle empty. Somebody had forgotten to restock.

From the teleportation gate in the grassland middle of nowhere, it then took her a thirty-minute drive along a large lake to the launchpad. At least the scenery was beautiful; the lake water glistening under the late afternoon sun, surrounded by the plain of grassland rolling all the way to the horizon. From the launchpad, Teana was then launched into the orbit through a very very VERY long tube connected to the orbital structure. The idea was; hard to get in, harder to get out.

Scaglietti looks amused.

"Really? A war in Vaizen?"

"Don't you have access to the news?" Teana stands up, approaching the door to give a talking to the guards outside. "Don't tell me they don't let you. You have the right to-"

"No, no, it's not like that! I just don't exercise that right." Scaglietti motions for Teana to sit back down. He waits for the lady to settle down at the table.

"So, what brings you here during this busy wartime?"

.

Teana brings out several holo-displays showing charts and tables and magic patterns. She gets to the point straight away.

"I need you to write an academic paper." She consults her notepad. "On the procedure to bring a deceased person back to life-"

Dr. Scaglietti bursts out laughing.

"Ahahaha! You must be joking."

But Teana continues.

"-is the pretense. In reality, when the procedure is replicated to the letter it should result in something unexpected."

"Such as?" The genius across the table is still smiling wide. He is not taking this seriously at all, but the smile gradually fades as Teana explains what she wants as the result. When Teana is done, Scaglietti's face is rigid and a bit terrified.

"You must be joking."

The lady Enforcer does not answer but looks straight into his eyes.

"OK, you are not joking." Dr. Scaglietti begins to take the request seriously. "But who in their right mind would follow such procedure?"

"Someone who is convinced." Teana answers matter of factly.

The prisoner rolls his eyes. 'Someone convinced of reviving a dead person?'

"What idiot believes a dead can be brought back?"

At this Teana sighs. Dr. Testarossa isn't an idiot after all.

"Unfortunately, that someone is not an idiot. If she was, I wouldn't be here asking YOU to write the paper."

That seems to have pressed the right button. The mad scientist shows an interest.

"So, you are setting me up for an intellectual duel? Is that right?"

"Well put, doctor. You worded it perfectly."

Dr. Scaglietti leans over the desk to have a closer look at the holo-displays Teana has laid out.

"These are your ingredients." Teana enlarges one particular display. "It's the signature pattern from the dead body-"

Scaglietti interrupts her, examining the pattern.

"I can tell this is a linker core, but this one is just developing… No clear definitions formed within the pattern? And this… this is a child. A little girl!" He looks at Teana with disgust. "A little girl!"

"Are you done complaining, doctor?"

Dr. Scaglietti throws hands in the air, then gestures for the Enforcer to continue. Teana enlarges another display; the Al Hazard magic pattern. The toned-down version of it. She explains it to be the magic source that absolutely has to be the key component of the procedure.

"We had to extrapolate some data points, and made some assumptions, so there is a margin of error." She produces a datapad and hands it over. "Everything is in there."

The evil genius who once threatened the Bureau takes the datapad from Teana. This Enforcer played a role in a series of events that put him in this prison. But once settled down, he let it go and held no grudge. It is not the first time he is helping her, but this is a bit… pushing the boundary. He has to know. 'Is it really worth stepping over the line?'

"This is a dreadful thing you are asking me to do" He summarizes the task given to him in one sentence. Teana nods. Scaglietti leans in. He absolutely has to know.

"Who exactly am I fooling?"

"Precia Testarossa."

"Ahahahahahahahahaha!" He abruptly stops laughing. "When do you need it? What do I get in return?"

"Two weeks. And you get a family house in Vaizen. With enough rooms for the Numbers." Teana adds with a smile. "Living under our surveillance, of course."

Scaglietti taps on the table.

"So, in two weeks I write a fake academic paper credible enough to fool Testarossa. Do you even realize what you are asking?"

"Do you need more time, doctor?"

Dr. Scaglietti leans back and thinks about his options. This is once in a lifetime chance to duel and make a fool of that Testarossa woman. He simply cannot let it pass. Besides, a house in Vaizen? For him and the Numbers?

"Didn't you say there's a war in Vaizen?"

Teana reaches across and taps on the datapad.

"This will end the war. You help save Vaizen, you get to enjoy the rest of your life in Vaizen. Bit of a sense of accomplishment for you, too, I expect."

The prisoner waves it off.

"Succeeding to fool Testarossa alone is good enough of an accomplishment… but a family house; that is something." He makes his mind up. "Alright, come back in a week for the first draft."

Teana thanks the man and gets ready to leave. Scaglietti leans over the table.

"I've been meaning to ask; Pardon my rudeness, but-" He sniffs. "-have you vomited recently?"

Teana loses her cool and turns bright red.

**#**

.

The Midchilda flight mages come down from the evening sky and land right outside the hangar used by Signum as her HQ.

Nanoha is the last to come down. She lands very hard, almost crashing. As soon as she is on the ground, she retches, gets on all fours, and throws up. The concerned flight mages gather around to see if their group leader is OK.

A Rapid Response soldier has witnessed the scene and promptly reports to major general Signum, who in turn rushes out of the hangar with a worried expression.

"Is she hurt? What's wrong?"

Caro, who's been patting on Nanoha's back, quickly stands to attention and salutes the general.

"I don't know. She just-"

"I'm OK. I'm not hurt-" says Nanoha, still on the ground. She retches and throws up again, moaning.

Signum lets out a sigh of relief at the news Nanoha is not hurt. Then she becomes angry. She puts her hands on her waist like an angry mom.

"See? This is what happens. You don't rest. You don't eat. You don't wash. You probably caught a germ or something."

"But she was fine this morning." Caro observes.

Nanoha, still on all her fours on the ground, head hung low, grumbles.

"I'm not fine."

Signum and Caro exchange glances. Nanoha continues.

"How can I be fine?! Fate is out there trying to save them! And I'm killing them like- oh god!" Nanoha buries her head and starts to cry. She is upset Fate was down there risking her life saving the girls from Nanoha. She is upset she could not find Fate even though she tried so hard. She is upset the girls all look the same and sound the same. She is upset the girls are good girls.

The Midchilda Air Wing's flight mages watch their group leader in awkward silence. Much to everyone's discomfort Nanoha's head is so low and dangerously close to what little lunch she ate earlier today.

Signum is at a loss what to say. She turns to captain Ru Lusche for help, but it seems the young lady also doesn't know what to do.

"Let's… let's just give her some space." Signum suggests. "Knowing how close she is with Fate… maybe this is natural." Then Signum realizes Caro is close to Fate as well. Fate was indeed the legal guardian of this young captain for years.

"How are you coping, Caro?"

"Hmm…" Caro searches through her emotions. "At first I thought it would feel terrible fighting people who look exactly like Fate-" Then she adds rather cheerfully. "But the masks helped. I don't see their-"

Nanoha is still on her fours but has stopped crying. Staring at her half-digested lunch, she interrupts Caro.

"What masks?"

"You know, madam? The face masks they are wearing?" Caro is puzzled. "Bid red X?"

Nanoha stands up, not looking at Caro.

"What are you talking about, Caro? They aren't wearing such things." She starts walking into the hangar. "Get your head straight, captain."

Caro and the flight mages stand there dumbfounded with their mouths open. Signum shuts her eyes hard and grimaces. Something is definitely wrong with the White Devil.

**#**

.

It is the next morning in Vaizen's Interworld Teleportation Terminal. Hayate, accompanied by her staff, steps out of the teleportation gate from Midchilda. Thanks to the clone girls not doing much after the afternoon's battle yesterday, the soldiers had a relatively peaceful night. Hayate on the other did not get much sleep and it is showing on her face.

"Once you exit to the lobby, there will be a brief reception ceremony arranged by Vaizen people." Reinforce goes over the schedule, hovering over Hayate's shoulder as the commander gets ready to face the public. "Then a greeting with the Head of Vaizen Executive Office, Commander of Vaizen Defense Corps, and the group representing the evacuee-"

"Do I give a speech? I'm not prepared!" Hayate panics.

"No, no. No speech." Reinforce calms Hayate down. "Just smile nicely and shake some hands, OK?" She tries a model smile herself as if to demonstrate. Hayate practices as Reinforce rearranges her tie and straightens the wrinkles on the uniform. The tiny girl takes a floating step back and examines her commander's appearance.

"Can't help with the tired look, but I think it's OK. Gives off the impression you are working hard."

"I am working hard!"

Reinforce shushes the Princess and combs Hayate's hair. Hayate takes a deep breath, exhaling with puffed cheeks, bobbing up and down, trying to pump herself up.

"OK, let's do this."

The martial law commander enters the lobby and is met by a loud cheer and applause. A band starts playing marching music which she instantly recognizes.

Head of Vaizen Executive Office, Commander of Vaizen Defense Corps, and major general Signum are standing in attention. They salute. Hayate returns salute and shakes hands, greeting each of them.

Signum guides her boss to a group of civilians in their best dress for another series of handshakes and greetings. Having spent enough boring days at the Terminal waiting for their turn to be evacuated, the civilians seem to enjoy this little uplifting mood. Thus, not many people notice the commander's smile becoming more and more forced as the marching music goes on.

.

Half an hour later Signum points at a crowded corner of the hangar.

"For now, I've moved my HQ to that corner." She moves her finger towards another corner. "That's the flight mages." then to another. "2nd division can set up there if he wants. You will be at the center." After a brief pause Signum sighs.

Initially, Signum had no intention of ever letting Hayate come to Vaizen. She had a series of excuses ready and rehearsed and coordinated with Reinforce to make sure the Princess does not set a foot in Vaizen until the war is over. No way was Signum going to allow Hayate to come anywhere close to a war zone, Vaizen be damned. There is nothing wrong with the Capital Defense Commander sitting in her office in the Capital; Hayate could be excused even if she spent the entire duration of the war sitting in her office in Midchilda. That was Signum's plan. But then the freaking Vaizen people made Hayate their Martial Law Command. Of Vaizen. There were no more excuses Signum could provide. Hayate has to be in Vaizen. So Signum called Ginga and snatched a company out of the colonel's regiment. They are now tasked with nothing but everything to do with the Princess's safety. Hidden from Hayate's view, of course. Hiding these facts from showing on her face, Signum turns to her Princess.

"Once things get in motion I intend to move out closer to the front where my units are."

"Good." Hayate nods. She is somewhat uneasy. "Signum, a word, please?"

They excuse themselves from the others and find a quiet section of the hangar.

"Who picked the music?" Hayate asks in a hushed voice.

Signum is visibly surprised by this totally irrelevant and petty question.

"Come again?"

"The march they played." Hayate notices Reinforce coming over. She gestures for the tiny friend to join in the conversation. "What's up with the band? Why did they play that piece?"

"Oh, that? You are an Earthborn, but also the protector of Midchilda, and now the savior of Vaizen." Reinforce explains. "They wanted to show their appreciation by playing something from your homeworld, so they called me earlier, and-"

"And YOU gave them the Imperial March?" Hayate glares at Reinforce.

"What's wrong with it? I liked it." Signum shrugs. Reinforce nods in agreement.

Hayate is not very pleased.

"It's the theme music for a galactic evil overlord. It paints me as the-"

"Galactic overlord…" Signum ponders. "Now, that's befitting the master of Book of Darkness."

With an 'Argh!' Hayate throws her hands in defeat.

.

They are interrupted by a series of laughter and joyful greetings coming from the hangar gate. A bald barrel-like middle-aged man in Ground Armament Service uniform is entering the hangar, already chatting with Signum's staff. The man is the commander of Capital Defense's 2nd division, Signum's peer. The man notices the ladies and approaches with a large smile and his arms open.

"Good morning, ladies. Sorry I got held up at the gate." He salutes the corps commander.

"2nd division reporting for duty, madam." Hayate salutes back and gives him a big hug. With a friendly smile, Signum shakes hands with the man.

"OK, now you are here, we can get started." Hayate announces and leads her division commanders to the center of the hangar. Reinforce pulls out a massive holo-map, and the JTF staff meeting commences.

.

Nanoha is also attending the meeting. She is sitting on a stool, hunched forward with the elbows resting on the knees, hands clasped together. She hears Hayate's voice as if submerged underwater. Her face expressionless, eyes vacant.

**#**

.

Nanoha rises up into the morning sky. A hood extends over her head from the nape of her insulated windbreaker combat jacket. A transparent visor extrudes from the hood, keeping her vision clear from the wind as well as displaying various status and data. Down below, columns and columns of armored vehicles are moving out of the Terminal complex into the open, heading east.

She reaches high altitude and speeds towards the front line, trailing the drag-reducing tails extended from her waist. Flying fast alongside her left are the remaining flight mages of her 1st squadron. Several hundred meters below is Captain Ru Lusche's 2nd squadron flying in a formation.

Nanoha has lost the track of the time. She does not remember the staff meeting ending. In fact, all she vaguely remembers is that Hayate came and talked about something that in essence could be summarized into Nanoha continuing to kill a whole lot of the invaders.

The Midchilda flight mages pass over colonel Nakajima's regiment, already engaged in a massive firefight with the advancing attackers. Countless colorful lines zigzag across the field like crazy, resulting in explosions and dead bodies as both sides throw fatal means of destruction at each other.

"Good morning, White Devil. Say hello to our 2nd squadron." Bug Boy's voice fills the comm. Nanoha sees a squadron of sixteen flight mages swing around wide, forming up on Nanoha's right about a kilometer away. Below, Bug Boy leads Vaizen's 1st squadron and forms up with Caro's. They dive down to engage the enemy on the ground.

Straight up ahead, a big swarm of airborne invaders is flying in at high speed. The air erupts in explosions and magical discharges as both sides exchange ranged attacks.

Nanoha dodges the attacks, cuts through the swarm of Fate Testarossas. She gets behind a young Fate and shoots. The attack connects, cutting the target in half at the waist level. The young Fate falls, dying, horror-filled eyes locked onto the White Devil. Another Fate, this time about 20 years old, fills Nanoha's field of view, blade ready to swing. She explodes to pieces immediately.

Nanoha quickly looks around. The air is full of Fate Harlaowns of various ages. White Devil keeps fighting because that will end the war quickly.

Nanoha has lost the track of the time. Apparently, it's now evening; she is still fighting, weaving through million streams of glowing javelins hurled at her. And then she is on all her fours again, vomiting in the rainy afternoon with Hayate yelling at her from behind. And then it's a dark night and she's fighting again. Then the early morning she's strafing ground targets. She's on all fours again, vomiting again. What day is it today? She wonders. Regardless, she keeps killing Fates again and again until she can't see anything anymore. She is so sure she is hallucinating because she is experiencing things in montages and hearing voices.

"They are like me" Says Fate's voice.

Millions of lives. She is doing the right thing.

For some reason, Nanoha is surrounded by Fates in varying stages of life. They are enraged as Raising Heart whacks them one by one in a flurry of attack maneuvers. It hurts her to see her dear Fates swinging scythes down on her.

"I met you and I was given a chance!" Nanoha remembers this one. It was Fate who said that to her, and it is again Fate telling her the same thing.

Protect Vaizen people, end the war. This is right.

"We just want Alicia back!"

Nanoha stops and wonders about this. Does Fate really want Alicia back? She shakes her head; Right, I'm hallucinating and hearing things. Look, I'm talking to myself again.

Stop that mad woman. This is right.

"Would you give up on Vivio?"

"Leave Vivio the fuck out of this!" Nanoha screams. Caro jumps up, startled.

"Sorry, madam. Were you talking to me?" Says the baby-faced captain. Nanoha looks around and sees the concerned faces of her flight mages. For some reason, it's a moonlit night. Wasn't it the morning moments ago? Frustrated, Nanoha pushes past her colleagues, onto the field, to the angry Fates.

"You do realize there is potentially an infinite number of them?" It's her own voice! What the heck? Nanoha is confused. Hearing things is one thing, but my own voice… Isn't that what they call crazy?

"At some point, you would have killed more of them than the Vaizen population."

But it doesn't matter, Nanoha thinks to herself. She needs the war to end and Fate back home with her.

"White Devil, what are you doing? We are retreating. Get out!" Says Ginga's voice.

Nanoha keeps going.

"White Wing! Ascend!" Oh, it's Caro. Caro sounds distressed. The Fates are now dying en masse.

"Ascend! Get out of there!" Caro is screaming, but Raising Heart is spinning.

"Nanoha!" Fate calls her out and Nanoha finally comes to her senses. For some reason it's a late afternoon, cloudy, raining. Everything is in extremely slow motion, but Nanoha blames it on her dulled senses. Raising Heart is in its staff mode, in her view, held in an extended arm. Nanoha, for a reason unknown to herself, is on the ground in the thick of multiple Fates. She is in a pirouetting motion; surrounded by droplets of blood and destroyed body parts suspended twirling in the air as if caught inside a tornado.

A kid Fate's face comes into view. This is the one she met for the first time in Uminari. Then and when all this started. Nanoha stops her carnage and smiles.

"Oh, Fate-chan, it's you. Thank god, you are not hurt!"

The kid Fate lunges forward, screaming.

"Die, you monster!"

Nanoha points her staff and blasts her dear Fate to pieces. I'm the one killing her so why am I the one screaming noooooo?

"Noooooo!"

.

Eyes bloodshot, hair messy and matted, uniform stained, sweating and panting, she comes to her senses. Raising Heart is in the shooting mode, glowing pink. The soldiers in the hangar are hugging the floor, weapons drawn and pointed at Nanoha. They have wild eyes and shocked expressions. The hangar ceiling has a big hole; smoking and debris falling. The cool starry night sky can be seen through the hole. Nanoha looks around with wild eyes. Her flight mages are half standing half sitting, mouths open, stopped in whatever they were doing.

In the center of the hangar is a heap of bodies on top of each other. An angry muffled voice comes from the bottom.

"I'm OK! I'm OK! Get off me! Hey, that's my boob!"

One by one the layers of soldiers stand up to reveal Signum protectively covering on top of Hayate. The two ladies are clearly distressed by the experience.

"Nanoha, what the fuck?"

Hayate glares at Nanoha. She looks around. Her soldiers are still hugging the floor, their weapons ready to fire at the White Devil. Something falls on Hayate's head and she looks up at the ceiling.

"It's alright, people. Stand down. Stand down!" She motions for the people to put their guns away. "She shot the ceiling, not us. Must have been some crazy nightmare, ahahaha." Hayate forces out halfhearted laughter. No one laughs with her. She stops abruptly.

"Stand the fuck down!"

The soldiers slowly stand up, reluctantly putting their weapons away.

.

Hayate drags Nanoha out of the hangar into the night. She pushes the disheveled ace of the aces to the hangar's exterior wall.

"What the fuck, Nanoha? What are you doing?"

Hayate does not get an answer. She is furious.

"You've been acting weird lately. Going off on your own! Ignoring all the doctrines! What are you doing?"

"I'm fighting the war." Nanoha whispers. Hayate pulls her hair in frustration.

"You are not fighting the war, you are endangering everyone!" Hayate stomps on the ground. "They've been telling me you are losing your mind!"

"No! I'm perfectly fine!" Nanoha insists.

"Oh, yeah? Caro told me you don't see the masks." That fact alone sounded crazy enough to Hayate.

"What masks?" Nanoha doesn't help herself either. Hayate's jaw drops. Clearly, obviously, Nanoha has lost her mind. Hayate tries to calm herself down. She needs to do some simple checks first.

"OK, Nanoha. When did I come to Vaizen?"

"This morning."

Hayate, defeated, loses all her strength. She shrivels up and sighs.

"That's it. You are grounded. I can't let you go out like this."

"But I need to save them!" Nanoha protests, suddenly forceful.

"Save who?"

"Fate's girls!"

Hayate is mad. She stomps on the ground some more, face red, screaming on top of her lungs.

"But you've been killing them like crazy!"

"Because that ends the war quicker!" Nanoha is screaming, stomping her feet, too.

Hayate tries to match the volume.

"How the fuck do you save them when you go kill them like eating popcorns!" She points east. "Has it ever occurred to you Fate is among them?"

"I know! But Vivio-"

"What! The! Fuck! What! Vivio?!" Hayate has had enough. Screaming, with all her might she shoves Nanoha, who doesn't budge at all. Hayate slips and falls face-first to the ground, muddy from the last rain. Panting, she flips over, looking up at her troubled friend. Hayate tries to catch her breath after all that yelling.

"You know what? Forget it, no need to talk. You are grounded." Hayate stands up, her chest heaving up and down. "Stay put and coordinate your wing from here. That's final."

Nanoha does not answer but glares at the small friend.

"I wouldn't ask for a salute, but 'Yes, madam commander!' would be nice." Hayate wipes the mud off her face. "Do you understand, lieutenant colonel?"

Nanoha snaps a defiant salute, and storms into the hangar stomping each step. Hayate tries to get the mud off her as best as she can but soon gives up. She leans on the hangar wall and lights a cigarette. After a long puff, she cusses.

"Aw, fuck." There really isn't anything else for her to utter at this moment.

**#**

.

Alicia clone is sleeping on the couch. After a series of whimpering and thrashing around, the girl wakes up screaming.

Red Ribbon and Fate, who have been sleeping on the living room floor, jump up immediately; the former brandishing her blade, on guard.

"What's wrong? Are you alright?" Fate tries to comfort the little one.

"I tried to run, but she was-" The little girl, panting and sweating, looks around, and realizes she is safe here with her sisters. "I was so scared." The girl sobs into Fate's embrace. Red Ribbon puts the blade away and watches silently.

"Shh… It's alright. Did you have a nightmare? It's OK now." Fate runs her hand over the girls back, whispering into the ears. The little one clings on.

"I ran from the big monster, but wherever I hid the flying devil came from above." She shivers. "And she kept killing me again and again and again-"

"Oh boy…" Fate sighs. This one must be talking about Nanoha. Yes, the White Devil has been extra violent the past week and Fate had to put in extra efforts to drive the sisters our of Nanoha's path of destruction, but Fate didn't think much of it. When Nanoha goes ham she goes ham. Apparently, however, the sisters are now having nightmares about the flying devil… that's on top of the already common nightmares involving Friedrich, who, when you get to know him, is actually very cute and friendly.

"She's quite relentless, isn't she? But you know what?" Fate runs a hand over the girl's head "She isn't that scary. Do you know why?"

The little girl looks up. The red ribbon girl sits down, too, all ears. Fate continues.

"Because I'm sure… deep inside… she, too, is scared of you." Fate hugs the little one tight. "And vampires!" She pretends to bite the girl's neck. The little girl lets out hiccups of laughter, squirming this and that way. The red ribbon girl smiles, too, setting aside the question whatever the heck a vampire is.


	11. 11: Making It Believable

Teana is visiting Jail Scaglietti as agreed previously. She takes her time reading through the first draft, and it looks impressive as is. Now it just needs to be padded up a bit.

"This looks good. Now we need it peer-reviewed. At least two… or three, I think."

Dr. Scaglietti grimaces. As much as he hates to admit his work is a fraud, there is no way any self-respecting academic would volunteer to peer review this work of fiction.

"I'm sorry, but who's going to write up a review paper on this fraud?"

"You, of course. Make it credible." Teana answers casually. She adds with a smile. "Please."

Scaglietti stares at the Enforcer mouth agape. Now, this is pushing things too far.

"You mean I write a fake paper discussing my other fake paper?"

"Not a fake paper. Three fake papers."

Teana stands up and gets ready to leave. She checks her breath once more; mint. She had berated the Agents for not restocking her mouthwash in the usual container, and when she arrived today, a week later, there was a colorful selection of mint, strawberry, industrial oil, and lime ready for her to use. Not that she looked forward to throwing up after a long-distance jump.

She turns to see Scaglietti pulling his hair out.

"You pull this off, I'll make sure your Vaizen house gets a pool. I promise."

.

Signum is moving out of the hangar, taking her division HQ staff with her. Hayate stands there with arms crossed, grumpy.

"I'm not happy you are leaving your Raptor regiment behind." No Princess likes to have her general go out to the battlefield with only half the available force. But when Signum says the Raptors are staying by the Princess, the Raptors are staying by the Princess at the Terminal. Last night, Signum's sword, Laevatein, was brandished and the Corps HQ people shut their mouths up, despite Hayate's protest.

"It's bad enough you actually came to the war zone." Signum shakes her head dissatisfied. "I'm not leaving you here defenseless."

With that, the Wolkenritter general gets on one of the many armored carriers parked in front of the hangar. Rapid Response division HQ moves out, heading eastwards to set up closer to its own units.

.

And so, Hayate spends the next week carefully setting up her forces for a counterattack. She lures the enemy, pulling Rapid Response back little by little day by day, conceding two small towns in the process. The clone army slowly advances in a straight line towards the Terminal, spreading along a long horizontal axis spanning forty to fifty kilometers. Unbeknownst to the Alicia clones, Signum leaves Anvil and Punchkid behind, screening the invaders some distance from the north, undetected, ready to come down and cut the enemy in half any moment.

In the meantime, Hayate sends her 2nd division to south, which then makes a wide arc heading towards the coastal industrial zone, running parallel to the main axis of the enemy advance but in the opposite direction. Hayate hides the division some distance from the actual industrial zone. There it would wait for the go signal from the Princess.

During all this the flight mages fly to and from the front line, occasionally coming back from a battle with one or two less in numbers. Nanoha, grounded, would sit at the corner of the hangar, now Hayate's Joint Task Force HQ. She listens to the comms and reads status displays while her fellows fight above the front line. She is visibly nervous with wild eyes, biting her nails, shaking, and it gets worse and worse day by day Hayate begins to seriously worry about her friend. From time to time, especially when the shouting and screaming in the comm indicate her flight mages are having a bit of trouble, Nanoha would grab her dirty combat jacket and tries to rush out the hangar only to be forcefully halted and put back on the stool by Hayate and entourage.

Hayate doesn't know what to do. The White Devil has been fighting the clone girls since the hour zero; she should not be seeing the raw faces behind the masks. To make it worse Nanoha is not the only friend troubling Hayate. Strategic Arms is frothing in their mouths. At first, they thought it was a glitch in their asset location tracking system. After days of maintenance, update, reboot, and bug hunting, they have finally come to realize Fate indeed is on the other side of the front line; not answering their calls. "At least you could have told us!" They yelled at poor Reinforce for some reason.

.

Thanks to Hayate, Precia Testarossa spends the week on the edge of her throne. The girls are clearly making progress, but not as fast as she'd like. But then again, not too slow to the extent her patience is tested.

She carefully observes what's happening in Vaizen. It's obvious to her the Bureau soldiers are trying to buy time, only giving grounds when they have to. Turns out they have to anyway. At first, she thought they are buying time for their reinforcement to arrive, but she has seen none. It is clear then the soldiers would not be able to hold a position even if they wanted to. Her girls reaching the Terminal is inevitable. That is something assuring. She just wants it to happen a bit more quickly.

**#**

.

The last batch of the civilians at the Terminal jumps through the gates. And at last, there is none left.

On the other section of the long platform, troops start to arrive through the arrival gates.

The Enforcers and the Agents of Vaizen's Executive Office sigh, relieved. They congratulate each other, patting each other's back on the job well done. They walk out to the lobby to make sure no one is left behind. The vast empty space is filled with a surreal silence giving the Bureau workers eerie sensation. Vaizen's troops are milling about in anticipation. Their assigned duty in supporting the evacuation is now completed. Their families and neighbors out of harm's way. The soldiers are eager; it is now finally the time to head to the front line and show the invaders whose home Vaizen is.

The commander of Vaizen Defense walks into the Joint Task Force HQ. He easily finds Hayate; she is hard to miss.

When he had first heard some spoiled brat from Midchilda requested his Vaizen defense be placed under their command, he was furious. Then the details started to trickle in; that brat turned out to be none other than the famed Yagami the Bookworm. He no longer was mad. The Vaizen commander was honestly impressed to see a whole freaking battalion from Midchilda arrive the very next day, when his own corps, the first party who is actually being invaded, just managed to mobilize only a handful of units. Yagami had, years ago, published a paper in the officer's journal calling for what can only be described as today's Rapid Response. He read it with great interest and seeing the actual manifestation that is Rapid Response roll out on Vaizen's plains, he felt a little envy.

It's not that he did not want his own Rapid Response, nor did not see the need for such a unit. Lieutenant general Yagami, appropriately nicknamed Princess, was just simply pampered to the brim; no other commanding officers in the multiverse enjoyed the level of funding and resources Capital Defense enjoyed. Maintaining that level of alertness was just too taxing, and the Bureau had simply decided if it was going to spend that much money it would spend it on the Capital. He did not hold any ill feelings. Just a bit of envy as a fellow professional in the same field of work. Besides, Yagami has proved again and again she is capable of her job. Thus, he was OK with reporting to a fellow three-star general who now holds the title of the JTF Command and the martial law command. On the personal level, this spoiled Princess was just so entertaining to watch no matter how many tantrums she threw.

"Commander Yagami, civilian evacuation is complete." He reports to the fellow three-star general who's at least twenty years young than him.

Hayate looks up from a report she has been reading.

"At last! What's your force status? What can you give me?" The Princess demands.

The Vaizen defense is going to have its already mobilized units back from the evacuation duty. He tells her so.

"They are from all over the place. Nevertheless, I can put together an ad-hoc division right now. And then one more in a week as we continue to mobilize." He points up at the sky, through the large hole in the ceiling which is now covered with a thick opaque tarp. "In the air, though… What we have out there now is all we've got."

"Hmm…" Hayate scratches her chin. There isn't much she can do about the Bureau not having enough flight mages. Not many people can fly, and of those who can, only a fraction of them are willing to join the Air Armament Service, let alone complete the training.

"I also have the expeditionary force dispatched from the rest of the worlds. A regiment strength in total." Hayate says to her counterpart, practically offering him to take it. The man nods in appreciation.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to have them reinforce my division." If his makeshift division is not going to have a good unit cohesion, then he at least wants the numbers.

"As you wish. I want you to go up north and relieve Anvil and Punchkid."

With the two battalions back from their hiding up north, Signum would have her personal shotguns back in her hand, ready to shred the enemy when she eventually is ordered to advance. The makeshift Vaizen defense division would crash down from the north at the same time. Overall, Hayate just needs one more thing to be cleared before she can let her hunting dogs loose; Al Hazard.

The Vaizen Defense Corps commander excuses himself and goes to sort out his forces, leaving Hayate alone. She waits till the man is a good distance away before calling Chrono.

"Chrono-san, where is my Al Hazard solution you've promised?"

Judging by the expression on the hologram face, Hayate can tell Chrono is not yet ready to deliver.

"Sorry, Hayate. It's almost done, though. Teana is applying the finishing touch."

"Teana? What's she got to do with it?"

"She's supervising the production." Chrono tries to remain as vague as possible. "In the meantime, I've got to figure out the delivery method."

Hayate scratches her cheek, slightly annoyed. She does not understand a single word this man is saying.

"What the hell are you giving me?"

"I can't tell you now, but-" Chrono hesitates before adding. "Consider it a time bomb."

**#**

.

Deputy Director Harlaown ends the comm. He is leaning against a console sideways while his staff is busy doing their jobs. There is a mission underway; orchestrated by the operators sitting in the control room deep inside the Naval Intelligence Directorate facility.

The Senior Operator has been waiting for his boss to get off the comm.

"Sir, unmanned insertion is ready to proceed on your go word." He reports.

"Are the sensors online?"

The Senior Operator gestures towards a cluster of displays hovering at a corner of the room.

"All sensors are active and on the secure datalink."

Chrono nods and gives a thumbs up.

"Aye, sir. Drone boat immersing right away." The Operator turns and gives two thumbs up to the room. The many heads that were turned in this direction collectively turn to their own consoles. Lots of buttons are pressed almost at the same time.

.

In the Vaizen orbit, a Sail Force vessel, about the size of a large bus, manipulates the space-time fabric. Like a small but dense steel ball sinking into a pudding, the drone boat enters the dimensional pathway between Vaizen and Al Hazard.

.

The mission control goes into a frenzy as a loud alarm blares in the room.

"Sir, passive mana sensor is overloading!" An operator reports, shouting over the noise.

The Senior Operator is about to tell the man to remotely turn off the sensor, but Chrono stops him.

"Leave it on! The whole package is expendable. Don't worry about the boat, milk out every last drop of data."

Several heads turn his way hearing this order. A very expensive piece of magical technology is going to be fried. Welp, if the acting director says it is expendable, it is so.

"It wasn't like this when I was coming back on Helios." Chrono notes. "She must be channeling Al Hazard into the path."

The sensor operator punches a button on his console.

"Going optical, sir."

A large display on the wall shows the visual feed from the drone boat inside the pathway. It is a chillingly dark space, filled with bright golden orbs.

"Aw shit… surveillance orbs!" The Senior Operator cusses.

"This is not fair!" Chrono laments. "She will see us coming, but we won't be able to detect anything beyond the visible range."

The Senior Operator agrees with a nod.

"If it's like this, our marines will blindly land on a trap."

The beeping noise intensifies.

"Something is happ-"

The optical display shows the space being filled with the dark violet light Chrono saw just before Wolfram went down. Then suddenly all data feeds from the remotely controlled boat go offline. The drone boat is dead.

"Well, shoot… Talk about an overreaction." The sensor operator scratches his head. "She does that to a mere drone boat?"

Chrono glares at the large display showing nothing but static. The marines will not be landing on a trap because they won't even make it to Al Hazard. The Vaizen - Al Hazard path is definitely not a safe route for a reverse invasion.

"Compile whatever data we gathered. CC to both JCS and JTF."

With that Chrono stomps out of the mission control. He calls his lieutenant and tells the man to arrange an appointment with the Bureau Security Adviser. Now is the time for Chrono to present his product to the decision-makers. Thankfully Teana had called in earlier to tell him she got the final draft from Dr. Scaglietti.

"I'm applying the final touch for the delivery part." Said Teana. Whatever that means.

**#**

.

Chrono and his mother Lindy sit at a coffee table in the middle of the Bureau Security Adviser's office. On the opposite side sits the Adviser, listening to the Harlaowns.

Chrono had some hours until the appointment with the Security Adviser so he paid a visit to his mother to ask for her support. The Chairwoman of Joint Chiefs of Staff decided to tag along to offer a holistic view on the future of the ongoing war in Vaizen. Chrono has also asked Teana to join, but since she is busy supervising the final touch on Scaglietti's work she can only attend via video conference; her face hovers next to Chrono, but she mostly keeps silent.

"-so basically we have confirmed Testarossa is capable of repeating her attack on Wolfram at her will." Lindy summarizes. The Security Adviser is clearly not pleased with this information.

"What if we take another route? From somewhere, not Vaizen?" He asks.

"That would require relocating our active units." Lindy explains. Up to now whatever units up and ready have all converged on Vaizen, because Hayate needed them there. Unless the Bureau musters up another force group, those of the Joint Task Force in Vaizen have to be the bulk of the invasion force, but because the Vaizen - Al Hazard path is not safe they'd first have to be shipped to the invasion staging in some other world, which in turn is possible only after Vaizen is secured.

"Which doesn't favor us in terms of schedule. Even if the marines establish another pathway and secure a beachhead-" Chrono chimes in.

"Once Yagami clears Vaizen, we'd have to jump them to the staging, put them on ships, and then sail undetected, which in its own is a difficult task…" Lindy continues. "By the time Yagami reaches Al Hazard, it is very likely we'd have a new batch of the clone army in Vaizen."

The Adviser scratches his head. This is getting a bit complicated.

"What are our options?"

Lindy and Chrono exchange glances. Their win condition is to neutralize both Al Hazard and Vaizen within a small window of opportunity because the Bureau cannot leave Vaizen defenseless against the possible reinforcement of two hundred thousand Alicia clones pouring out of the gate. The Bureau has to muster up a sizable force that can either relieve Hayate of the Vaizen duty or invade Al Hazard in her stead.

"But I expect that will take months?" The Security Adviser reads the mood.

"Either way, yes." Lindy nods. "That'd be two to three months for mobilizing a force strength equivalent to what we currently have in Vaizen."

"That long for a mere corps sized force?" The Adviser is surprised. Something is not right here.

"Not a corps, sir." Answers Chrono with a sigh. "Sir, we are talking about a force equivalent to Capital Defense's strength. The problem is…" He clears his throat. What he is about to say is a very uncomfortable truth. "The problem is Capital Defense is just too munchkin."

Unfortunately, the only active force that meets the requirement is lieutenant general Yagami herself and her corps. Else the Bureau would have to form up and commit a significant portion of its entire force. Whether Hayate invades Al Hazard with her corps or not, someone must take over either of the roles; go Al Hazard or defend Vaizen in Hayate's stead. Despite the on-going mobilization in swing, getting that someone ready takes time, hence the problem.

The Security Adviser shakes his head.

"So to end this in a reasonable time we need Yagami fighting, and winning, on two fronts simultaneously?" He face-palms. This is ridiculous. "Let alone the fact that it's physically and magically impossible, how the hell have we allowed this kind of imbalance in our forces?"

Lindy shrugs.

"Well, it was all set and done before you were appointed, sir. She was called into the position precisely because the higher-ups wanted the capital to be impenetrable."

'In simpler words; they've overdone it.' Lindy decides not to add.

The Security Adviser fidgets with his teacup. He is not going to judge his predecessor's work, but something bothers him. Up to now, he has been under the impression they were outmatched in terms of force strength. The enemy is supposed to be equivalent to two or three TSAB Ground Armament Service corps. But if Yagami's Capital Defense itself is a munchkin equivalent to multiple corps…

'Damn it, that brat!' Whether intentional or not, Yagami has downplayed her own strength, and nobody told him about this until just now. He's been giving hefty allowances to an already rich kid. He shakes his head. As annoying as it is, it's not something he should tackle right now. Ending the war has all the priorities.

"So, what are our other options?"

"An alternative would be to solely focus on driving them out of Vaizen." Says Lindy with a frown. Even if Precia Testarossa somehow gives up on Vaizen she would, of course, keep trying to get to Midchilda. Then the Bureau would have to maintain alert status indefinitely, which is just too taxing.

"I don't really like this, because if there is a next time it will be in Midchilda." Admits Lindy with a sigh.

That outlook is enough for the Adviser to dismiss the idea.

"Next!"

.

"Ahem." Chrono clears his throat. It's his turn to offer an alternative solution.

"Sir, Executive Office, and Naval Intelligence have together developed a magic manipulation to render the forces in Al Hazard irrelevant."

The Bureau Security Adviser looks up with a bright smile.

"You have? Then let's get on with it!"

"No, sir. It's not that easy." Chrono answers. He is going to lay it out slowly. "It only works in Al Hazard because the main component required is the ambient magic in Al Hazard."

"Hold on. What exactly does it do?" The Security Adviser demands to know.

Lindy catches Chrono and Teana exchanging glances. These kids are hiding something, but she decides it is better she does not know.

"It is a mass neutralization of their linker cores. The idea was proposed by Chief Enforcer and we-"

"Excellent! Send it with the marines, and we are done."

"It doesn't work like that, sir." Chrono goes onto explain why it needs a substantial computational power in manipulating external magic sources. "We have nothing of that sort in a portable form."

"God damn it!" The Adviser gets it, frustrated. What's the point if it cannot be done?

"-so our plan is letting Testarossa do it herself."

The old man looks baffled. 'Wait, what?'

Chrono nods to Teana's floating face, and she finally breaks her silence.

"Sir, with the help of Dr. Scaglietti we have disguised the manipulation procedure as an academic paper reporting a lab-scale success in reviving a dead organism." According to Teana the paper then proposes and outlines the procedure to revive a dead person, which Precia Testarossa ultimately wants to achieve.

"You did what?" The Adviser's jaw drops. Teana goes on.

"The proposed technique is then peer-reviewed and criticized for its requirement of an impossible amount of magic source, which, again, Testarossa has in her hand."

This time Chrono is surprised, too.

"Sorry, you didn't tell me about this peer review stuff. Who did it?"

"Scaglietti himself. Under some pseudonyms."

"Jeez…" Chrono is impressed. He knew Teana is good, but this is just… mindbogglingly meticulous.

"Scaglietti is confident his papers are believable." Teana adds.

The Security Adviser puts his hand up.

"Look, two questions." How do they make Testarossa give up on the library and actually take the Bureau's bait? And how the hell do they even put this paper in the hands of Testarossa, who by the way is in Al Hazard?

"The answer to your first question would be commander Yagami." Lindy gives her opinion. "She holds so hard in Vaizen and makes the prospect of Testarossa reaching Midchilda more and more unlikely." Lindy thinks more about it loud. That would make Testarossa tempted to try it out. This can be done while preparing for the invasion. If it doesn't work, just invade Al Hazard as planned. But if it works they won't need to invade Al Hazard at all and avoid the subsequent issues and problems, potentially saving a lot of headaches and lives. What Chrono and Teana have come up with is not an alternative, but a part of a two-track approach to end the war. Invasion or mass neutralization, whichever comes first.

"It's worth a try." Lindy concludes.

"As for your second question," Chrono takes it over. "Delivery remains the issue, sir. We can't simply drop it off somewhere and hope it miraculously finds its way to Testarossa's hands."

The fake academic paper and its supporting documents must get to Testarossa in a credible and interesting enough way. She has to be convinced this whole package holds some value worth having a look at.

"Do you have a plan?" Asks Lindy. She notes, judging by the expression, Chrono does not seem to have one.

"I do. That's what I'm working on right now." Teana answers instead. She has a plan.

.

Inside the Executive Office HQ, a large team of Enforcers and Agents is assembled in rows and columns of consoles arranged in one of its large halls, typing furiously into the machines under Teana's supervision. Occasionally some would stop to go over what they have written, or to argue with their colleagues about whether what they've done makes sense. Completed documents are sent to Teana, who reads them, correcting if needed. She then compiles them into a dossier documenting Jail Scaglietti's project. The documentation job is nearly complete. There remains one little challenge that requires some serious persuasion, and to do that she needs help from the higher-ups.

Teana carefully explained her plan and its reasoning to the Bureau Security Adviser and the Chairwoman of the JCS. They thanked her and let her go back to work. After an hour so, Chrono calls her at last.

"They agreed, Teana. Hayate is being notified as I speak."

"Good. Give me a couple of days to finish things up."

Teana ends the comm and returns to the backlog of charts and documents and letters that piled up while she was on the conference call. The finest of the Time Space Administration Bureau are having a field day making up fake internal memos and reports and meeting minutes. A legit Bureau solicited con and forgery carried out by the law enforcers.

.

"That's a high-value facility!" Hayate is fuming, yelling at Chrono's face hovering before her.

"No worries, Hayate. It's the Office's operation. You won't be held accountable."

"But still… " Hayate is at a loss of words. Chrono has just relayed an order from the very very top; to give up on a prestigious real estate. But more importantly, that means she has to move her hospital. Shamal is not going to like this.

**#**

.

A few days have passed and the war in Vaizen still rages on. Fate is watching the battle between her friend's soldiers and her sisters from a safe distance with Zafira by her side.

The clone girls have steadily advanced west. Fate is anxious because she knows only ten kilometers west from the front line is Caledfwlch factory. As much as she has confidence in Hayate, Fate is worried nonetheless. The girls are uncomfortably close to Shamal's hospital.

As usual, the fight is intense, but Fate has noticed something odd lately. There has been a slight shift in the intensity of fire from the Bureau's side. Not only that. The flight mages have been flying somewhat conservatively, disengaging and retreating at the first sign of trouble. It seemed as if Hayate has suddenly become extremely averse to taking casualties. So last night she asked Zafira what is going on. Zafira simply shook his puppy head and told Fate to stay out of it.

"They tell me some op is taking place, and you specifically are absolutely not to interfere." Zafira said to Fate with a stern voice last night. After that, no matter how much Fate pressured him to tell her more he kept his mouth shut.

An Alicia clone next to her has been surveying the sky for a while. She pokes Fate and points upward.

"We haven't seen her for some days."

Fate knows what the masked girl means. She has not seen Nanoha for days. At first, she thought Nanoha is just taking a break, but now the girl has mentioned it…

"The winged beast is still there, but not the flying devil." The girl turns to her sisters nearby. "Hey, have we killed her at last?"

Fate's heart sinks. The clone girls look at each other and shrug; they don't know. Fate looks down at Zafira inquisitively. He shakes his puppy head, to which Fate lets out a sigh of relief. As far as Zafira knows Nanoha is not dead. That's a relief.

A loud cheer echoing from the battlefield grabs Fate's attention. The Bureau soldiers are retreating yet again.

It takes her a couple of hours to reach Caledfwlch factory on foot. Fate feels humbled walking such distance. Before all this, for years, she was chauffeured around in the limo provided by the Office. For long distances, they would drive her to the nearest teleportation gate for her to jump, with another limo waiting on the other side. Sure, she did fly from time to time, but it was more as a hobby than an everyday mode of transportation.

Of course, she could just fly all the way to the factory, but no. She walks with the girls, her sisters, Zafira trotting alongside her. Simply by being there amidst these disheveled and smelly and battle-worn sisters chatting to themselves and laughing and everything… she could sense something. The feeling of togetherness. A family; Something she had not had as a kid even with her own mother.

Fate comes to her senses just as her group enters the Caledfwlch facility's parking lot. The place is deserted except for the Alicia clones poking around. Red Ribbon is there already, telling her sisters what to do. She points at a building and tells a group of clone girls to go check it out; see if there are some foods.

Fate is a little surprised. Giving up this factory is a sure way to piss off a lot of people, including the Caledfwlch people themselves. Fate can imagine a lot of angry calls being made to some very important people. Shits will roll down the hill onto Hayate. As far as Fate could tell, Hayate and her soldiers were perfectly capable of holding this place. 'So why abandon it?'

She approaches Red Ribbon.

"Where are the soldiers? Have we won today, too?"

The senior clone shrugs.

"They had already run away before we arrived. I guess another victory for-"

A sound of firefight comes from inside a nearby building. Fate can tell the familiar sound of Strike rifles firing. They rush to the building. Fate notices the sign "Caledfwlch Research and Development, Vaizen". The sound of the fight abruptly stops. Shortly a group of clone sisters violently drags out a female in civilian clothing with long orange-brown hair. She is whimpering and begging for her life.

Fate's blood boils. Shamal has left this civilian woman behind. Absolutely unacceptable!

Puppy Zafira flares his nostrils, sniffing, and lets out a short whimpering sound, visibly disturbed.

"What happened? Who is this?" Red Ribbon asks. The girls throw the civilian woman down on the ground. Head hung low, the woman cowers on her knees but is tightly holding a black datapad at her chest.

"She was in there with some soldiers. The machine warriors." One of the girls reports. "We killed them all, but this coward begged and cried that we spare her, so..." The girl shrugs. This is the first time somebody has surrendered. "I didn't know what to do."

Red Ribbon, the senior on the scene, pushes the civilian woman with her foot.

"Why didn't you run with the soldiers? What were you doing here? Who are you?"

The woman looks up. Fate freezes in horror.

'OK, this girl with the polka dot ribbon seems to be in charge.' Teana observes. She quickly glances around and spots Zafira. Next to the puppy stands a tall girl with a broken mask, which only covers a small portion of the very angry looking face.

'OK, that must be boss. Did she fucking bolt that shit on her face? Ohmygod she cut her hair!'

Teana turns her eyes back to the ribbon girl.

"Please don't kill me!" She cowers.

A heavy kick lands on her back, and Teana almost falls on her face yelping in pain.

"Answer the question! Who are you?" Someone who sounds exactly like the ribbon girl yells from her behind.

"I work for the company! Don't hurt me, please! I work here. RnD Archive!"

The girls look at each other in confusion.

"What's a company? What's RnD Archive?" One of them asks on everyone's behalf.

This question seems to have caught Teana off-guard, Fate notices. 'Sorry, my sisters are a bit…They need schooling.'

Teana stutters with her answer.

"This… This place belongs to my company. Caledfwlch Techniques." The girls listen to her with curious eyes. Some try to pronounce Caledfwlch. Teana continues, gesturing towards the building she was dragged out of "We do stuff for money. I… I am in charge of the research records stored here."

Red Ribbon digests this information. She opts not to ask what the woman exactly means by doing stuff for money. What the senior girl understands is that this woman is a keeper of some important stuff.

"OK… Why are you here? You don't seem to be a soldier."

"I can't tell you. It's a secret."

Teana is immediately kicked in the stomach by a clone girl. She doubles down in pain and it takes her a while to recover. When she has regained her breath the red ribbon girl asks once again.

"OK, OK. Please don't hurt me." Teana begs, meaning it. It really hurts. "I'm here on a mission to retrieve a company secret."

"What about the soldiers?" Red Ribbon asks, pointing at the RnD building.

"What? No, they aren't soldiers." Teana explains. Those were Raptor droids sent by Caledfwlch as her escort; company properties. Not soldiers. Teana looks around pleadingly. Her eyes briefly linger on her boss, who looks super pissed. The other girls… thanks to their masks she can't make out their faces but she can at least make out their eyes are curious, intrigued, yet hostile.

"Please don't kill me!"

"Shut up!" Red Ribbon yells. She thinks for some seconds. "What's the secret? Why come now when your soldiers ran away?"

Teana is impressed with this girl. She asks good questions. Teana's presence in a combat zone where the Bureau soldiers have left is suspicious as hell.

"I told you. It's a secret-"

Teana cannot finish the sentence as she is kicked in the teeth. She has expected another kick in the stomach and was not ready for this. Teana falls and rolls on the ground in pain, whimpering. The clone girls force her up on her knees. Sobbing, she spits out blood and an incisor.

"Please! I can't tell you-" She sees a raised foot. "OK! OK! I will tell you."

Still clutching the black datapad, Teana answers the question, stopping mid-sentence to spit out blood every now and then. Apparently, to Fate's amusement, Teana is here to retrieve a 'big secret.' A secret so big the company can't even let the Bureau know that there is a secret. Hence, she and the escort droids moved in as soon as the soldiers left.

"What's the big secret?" One of the Alicia clones asks. She forcibly takes the datapad away from Teana. "Is this it?"

"No! Give it back!"

Teana tries to take it back but is punched on the temple. She once more rolls on the ground in pain, but again, is forced back up on her knees. Then, holding her so she doesn't fall, they punch her face again. Then one more. And once more. Fate winces at every whack! 'Just what the hell is Teana doing?!' She can see Teana's face is all puffed up and bloody with broken fat lips.

"Stop! That's enough!" Fate intervenes but quickly realizes that put her in the center of attention. "I mean… I want to hear what she says… Let her talk, please." She trails off.

The red ribbon girl takes the datapad from her sister and fiddles with it. Suddenly several holo-display of reports and memos and charts appear hovering in the air. The girls let out a collective 'Ooh!' and 'Wow!'

"Is this the secret? What's so important about this?" Red Ribbon asks.

Teana sways her head in dizziness, but she is stubborn.

"Secret means secret, you know-" Says Teana weakly through her broken lips. Fate steps up and smacks the back of Teana's head.

"Just tell us already! Do you want to die? You were begging for your life minutes ago!"

Squinting her puffed eyes Teana can make out her boss's angry face. 'I think this should be enough.' She points at the holo-displays floating in the air and speaks in the most defeated voice she can manage.

"It's our project record. We researched on bringing the dead back to life. That's why it's a secret."

Understandably the Alicia clones erupt in questions and loud shouting. Red Ribbon has to shout over the noise to silence her sisters and it takes quite a while for the girls to finally shut up.

"Bring dead back to life?" She asks Teana to confirm she has heard it right. The badly beaten woman nods. "You did that?"

"Not me. Our researchers."

"Can you wake up Alicia?" A little clone girl butts in with a question. Now Teana has to play it cool.

"Who's Alicia?" Teana feigns ignorance.

Red Ribbon contemplates this huge discovery. Something does not make sense to her.

"Why was this kept a secret? Wouldn't it have made a lot of people happy?"

"I don't know! That's what secret means!" Teana lashes out but quickly cools down. She points at the datapad. "Everything should be in there. Read it yourself. I don't give a fuck anymore."

Fate is internally face-palming. Now she understands someone in the Bureau wants these girls to have this datapad. That is clear. But Teana… what the hell?

The red ribbon girl fiddles with the datapad some more and manages to put the holo-displays away. She gestures for her sisters to get Teana up.

"You are coming with us, and you will read everything in here for us." Then she turns to the sisters and tells them to get back to securing the place because for now their goal still is the Terminal.

From a concealed position about five kilometers west of Caledfwlch factory, a small mixed team of Naval Intelligence operatives and Executive Office's Enforcers uses powerful optics magic to observe Teana being dragged away. The team leader gets on the comm and whispers.

"Control, Malware has been picked up."

The whispered voice of Mission Control's senior operator answers back.

"Roger. Handing over to Rapid Recon on the scene. Return to base."

The team silently moves out of their position, cloaking up. The Enforcers grumble in a whisper about their girl getting beaten up.

Zafira is walking with the group of clones dragging Teana away to the nearest town. His ears twitch for a brief moment; he is getting a message. Zafira scampers off away from the group. Fate tries to follow him, but he shakes his head before setting off alone.

**#**

.

A large convoy of ambulances and personnel carriers enter the Terminal facility. The vehicles come to a stop in front of a large hangar not far from the Joint Task Force HQ. Patients, injured soldiers, are unloaded and moved into the hangar, where a new makeshift hospital has been set up. Shamal gives some instructions to her staff, then stomps towards the JTF HQ. Hayate walks out with Reinforce tagging along. The doctor is furious.

"Twelve! I've lost twelve on the way!" Shamal snaps accusingly. "Many of my patients were not fit for travel, you know. I've got to re-stabilize them, but some are going to die from the shock."

"I'm sorry about this, Shamal." Hayate apologizes sincerely. Shamal's patients are, after all, her own soldiers.

The doctor sighs and shrugs, having vented her anger. She knows it was inevitable. The front line was getting too close to the factory for her comfort. The hospital was destined to be relocated at some point anyway. She brings out a list and transfers over to Reinforce.

"These are the patients I want out of Vaizen. They need specialized cares."

"I'll make the arrangement." Reinforce promises.

Shamal pulls out another set of documents, but notices a whiff of… She sniffs around Hayate.

"Are you smoking again?"

"Er...no, no. It's...the other guys. Not me." Hayate fumbles through her lie. Internally she is relieved Reinforce has not gone that far as to snitch on her to the Yagami household's resident doctor.

"Anyway…" Shamal hands over the pile of documents to Reinforce who struggles with the weight. "These are my complaints regarding one major Subaru Nakajima. She's been nothing but a nuisance."

Reinforce sighs.

"We discovered she's been trolling in Ginga's regiment channel, too."

"By the way, Shamal. Could you have a look at Nanoha?" Asks Hayate.

"Nanoha? Is she hurt?"

Hayate explains. Shamal is worried but shakes her head.

"That's out of my field, but I can have a talk with her as a friend. I dunno if it's going to be any help, though."

Hayate sighs. If Hayate herself could not talk sense into Nanoha, Shamal is not going to have any better chance.

"It's alright. You get back to your patients."

Shamal salutes and turns around, but jumps up startled with a surprised shriek as Subaru is right there in her face.

"So, can I get back to my guys? It's boring in the hospital." Subaru stands there expectantly, a bandage wrapped over her left face, her left arm in a sling. Her uniform jacket lazily rests on the shoulders revealing the ketchup stained tank top.

"Oh my god, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Shamal tries to calm herself down. "As long as you don't go punching stuff with that arm you should be OK." Shamal seems to be glad to get Subaru out of her hospital. "Change those bandages every 6 hours. And don't come back, OK? Next time I'm putting you under tranquilizer 24/7!"

"Yes, doc!" Subaru salutes as Shamal walks off to her new hospital.

Hayate waits until Shamal is sufficiently far away before lighting a cigarette.

"Ahem… I will go say hello to Signum-san." Subaru enters the hangar but comes out again within a second.

"Where did she go? And what happened to the ceiling?"

**#**

.

The clones drag bloody faced Teana through the early evening streets of a town not too far from Caledfwlch factory which Hayate has recently conceded to the invaders. They drag the prisoner into a two-story residential house. The progression has gathered lots of attention, and the curious girls gather around the house.

Teana is dragged into a bedroom on the second floor and pushed down on her knees. The room is full of noise as the girls chat about this interesting prisoner. A little girl, clutching a bundle of clothes in her chest, wades through the bodies and comes in front of the Enforcer, who breathes heavily from the pain. Teana looks at the little girl with curious puffed eyes. 'So young…'

"Excuse me, are you from this world?" Asks the little one.

Teana looks up at Red Ribbon, who stands behind the little masked clone girl. The senior nods silently.

"Yes. Sort of…" Says Teana. She's actually from the neighboring world, but going into that small detail might result in another kick in the mouth. The little girl is delighted, her eyes behind the small mask beaming.

"Could you help me pick a present for Alicia-"

"Wha-?"

An older sister tries to pull the little girl away from the scene saying this can wait, but Red Ribbon snaps.

"Leave her alone!"

The masked clone backs off, leaving the small one in peace. Teana is visibly puzzled at this development. 'What is going on?'

The little sister unwraps the bundle she was carrying; producing four different girls' dresses.

"Which one do you think Alicia would like the best?" The girl asks.

"I- I don't even…"

Teana obviously doesn't know what to say. She looks at Red Ribbon, but the senior stands there in silence, seriously studying the dresses laid in front of Teana. The prisoner then turns to Fate only to be disappointed at the sight of her boss engrossed in the dresses as well. Defeated, Teana decides to ask some questions first. Maybe she can stumble upon something that makes sense.

"How does she look like?"

"She looks just like me." Says the little girl. "About the same size."

With her eyes puffed up by the previous beating, Teana looks hard at the little mask with a big red X on it. From behind the little one, Red Ribbon points at the simple yet elegant black dress. Teana hears Fate gasp.

"That one? Oh, no." Teana waves her both hands. "That's for funerals."

"Funerals?" The red ribbon girl asks.

"You wear this when someone you cared dies…" Teana pauses for a second. She wonders who will attend her funeral. Will she be remembered? She continues. "People gather to remember the good things about the deceased-"

"Oh really?" The little girl cuts Teana off, her voice excited. "Then let's give her this one. Alicia's been dead. I hope she likes it. Yes, she will definitely like it!"

Teana tries to protest this strange logic, but her voice is drowned by the other girls who cheer in agreement. Fate can't take it anymore. She gets on her knees and hugs the little one tight. Whispering 'Good girl, what a good girl.'

Red Ribbon steps up and gently pats the little one on the head.

"Very thoughtful of you. I'm sure Alicia will like it. But now, I need to talk to this lady." She looks around the room, addressing all the girls crowding the space. "Everyone. Please."

The clone sisters shuffle out of the room, leaving a group of Senior Clones. Fate lingers on, but they don't seem to mind. They hand over the datapad to Teana. One of them pokes Teana and gestures for her to start reading. Enforcer Teana Lanster, the mastermind behind this ridiculous scheme, currently undercover, summons the first document stored in the datapad. She starts to read it out aloud.


	12. 12: Malware

Teana is on the floor, leaning against the bed, with the datapad on her lap. It took her longer than expected to go through the documents with the clone girls. They needed a lot of help with many words. For hours Teana read the contents of the datapad aloud. The girls listened otherwise silently except when they interrupted her to ask questions.

"-is thus advised the research be kept strictly confidential, at least until the combat droids business enters its definitive decline phase."

"What does that mean?" A senior clone asks.

"It means… my company decided not to share the revival technique with anyone." Teana's answer causes great confusion among the girls. Red Ribbon asks on everyone's behalf.

"But why? It would have made a lot of people happy." The other seniors agree with her. "If Alicia wakes up mother will be happy. I will be happy."

Teana feels a little pang in her heart. Yes, some are fully grown-up ladies, and some are just little girls, but overall these girls are just innocent kids doing bad things, misled by an impossible hope.

"That's just how business works." Teana shrugs. She can sense the rage filling up the room.

"So, there was a way to wake up Alicia, but your people kept it a secret?"

"In essence, yes. Sorry."

.

The senior clones scramble.

"What do we do with this?" One of them asks no one in particular.

"With this mother can bring Alicia back." The red ribbon girl announces excitedly. "And we won't need to fight our way to Midchilda."

"But we are already so close…"

The girls fall silent as they contemplate.

Fate remains silent at a corner of the room, trying to minimize her presence. She still is confused about the objective of Teana's mission. It is obvious the Bureau wants the girls to deliver this datapad to mother. But for what? Has Caledfwlch really developed a revival technique? Fate is sure whatever mother plans to do in Midchilda has to be related to bringing Alicia back. The Bureau spoon-feeding this project data to mother, and consequently helping reviving Alicia, eliminates the root cause of the war… that would make sense had the project not been led by Scaglietti. Fate knows it's impossible. She put him in jail herself. So… what is going on?

At last a senior clone girl breaks the silence.

"Let's just send it to mother. She will make the right decision."

The others murmur in agreement and look at the red ribbon girl for confirmation. But she is in deep thought and does not realize she has the final say. Somebody nudges her.

"Huh?"

"Let's send it to mother?"

"Sure. How about we send it along with the presents?" Red Ribbon suggests and unknowingly settles the matter. With that the girls leave, chatting about what presents to send back home. The senior clone with the polka dot red ribbon on her head remains, sitting on a stool, silent, thinking. She absentmindedly takes it off and fidgets with it, her mind wandering.

She honestly doesn't know why she took it. The look of devastating remorse on the dying soldier's face burned into her memory. He offered this to the dead sister in an attempt to amend what he felt was his wrongdoing. She searches through her soul to find the answer. Why did she take the ribbon? She doesn't know. But what she knows is whenever she sees it in the mirror or feels it on her head, she remembers; The feeling of the utter sadness this fighting brings.

She has made her mind up and jumps on her feet.

"Sister, could you watch this woman?" She asks the tall sister in the corner of the room. "Kill her if she tries anything."

Fate watches the senior clone leave the room, closing the door behind. Fate and Teana exchange glances and their eyes fall on the datapad still on Teana's lap.

"What the heck is this, Teana?"

The captured Enforcer scoffs and massages her sore face, groaning in pain.

"Remember you told me to look for a way to neutralize their linker cores?"

"Yes, but-"

"It can't be done in Vaizen." Teana explains. It has to be done in Al Hazard using Al Hazard magic, and the only one capable of doing that is Precia Testarossa.

"Besides," Teana continues. "Hayate does not want to push them too hard because she is worried about the entire Al Hazard population coming over as a reinforcement."

"So, this is supposed to neutralize the girls in Al Hazard?" Fate points at the datapad. "By mother's own hand?"

"Hence this play. I didn't expect to be beaten up, though." Teana concludes and groans in pain again. She inserts fingers in her mouth and pulls a loose molar tooth out, much to Fate's horror.

"The Office will cover my dental fees, right?"

"Heck, no." Fate shoots icily. "I didn't approve this operation."

"Aw, come on."

.

Red Ribbon is outside the door, silent. She had gone downstairs to the kitchen and came back with a bag of ice. Now she is thinking again in the hallway. She deliberately left the datapad with the prisoner and the sister.

'If she really is here to work against us, this is her chance.' The senior clone thinks. If it was the case surely the datapad would be destroyed. Maybe the prisoner escapes, too. Thankfully the sisters are about two thirds there to the Terminal, so she can risk this. If things turn out as she has suspected, they will just shrug it off and proceed with the original plan. But then more sisters will die fighting… That she is afraid of. The senior clone girl is surprised at herself for hoping the sister in the room decides not to do anything bad.

She knows. 'That sister definitely is not one of us.' But from what Red Ribbon has seen… The sister with the broken mask is immensely powerful, so powerful she just waves off that winged beast's attack with one hand. Yet… the sister uses her power to protect the girls. And the way she dotes on the little ones… The red ribbon girl has not seen any sign of malicious intent. That puzzles her. Who is she and why did she come?

.

"Are you alright?" Fate is less angry now. "Does it hurt?" She sits down on the bed Teana is leaning against.

Teana points at Fate's face.

"It's nothing compared to having that thing bolted on your face. Really… what a brave thing-"

They are interrupted by a single bang on the door.

"I'm coming in." A younger Fate's voice says from behind the door. The two Enforcers look at each other; did that girl just knock?

.

The senior girl with the red ribbon walks in with a bag of ice. She hands it over to the captive woman and takes the datapad from the lap. Teana thanks the clone girl and puts the ice bag on one side of the face.

Red Ribbon sits on the bed next to Fate, dropping her staff down on the floor which rolls across the room making a funny noise. She scrolls through the long texts and charts and tables in silence for some minutes.

"Sister, what does this mean?" After some minutes she casually asks Fate, pointing at a long-worded sentence on the holo-display. Fate is about to answer, but she notices the eyes behind the mask fixed on her, not the displayed sentence. Fate freezes.

"Sister?" The red ribbon girl urges.

Fate sighs. She stands up, facing the Alicia clone girl.

"Are you trying to confirm if I can read?"

"Yes." The senior clone answers without batting an eye.

"Yet you've left your staff out of reach." Fate observes.

Teana is confused. What's going on between these two? "What the-"

"Would I need it on me?" Asks the red ribbon girl.

Fate thinks for a second and shakes her head.

"No."

With a bit of effort, Fate takes off a rubber-like layer off from her head, revealing another, slightly more aged, real face underneath. Now Teana is panicking.

"What the bloody-"

"Sorry, Teana. I'm not crazy enough to drill holes on my face." Fate gives an apologetic smile and shows the broken mask on a fake head mask. "Shamal refused anyway, so…"

"What are you fucking doing?!" Teana's face is turning red.

"Besides, how else could I hide the wrinkles?"

Red Ribbon remains calm and indifferent, watching the interaction between the two Enforcers. The old sister sighs again and properly addresses the younger clone sitting on the bed.

"My name is Fate Testarossa Harlaown. I am the Chief of Executive Office, Time Space Administration Bureau. I am also the first of your kind." She beams a smile. "You can call me onee-chan." She gestures for Teana to say hello. "This is Enforcer Teana Lanster. She works for me. Thank you for not killing her." And she means it.

Teana, of course, is frothing in the mouth.

"Boss, are you out of your fucking mind!"

The red ribbon girl looks at the two Enforcer apologetically.

"I'm sorry. I don't have a name to tell you."

"What the fuck are you guys doing?!" Teana jumps and stomps, screaming. Then she breaks down, squatting, her face in her hands, crying.

"Boss, you are ruining everything!" And she wails, seriously upset. All the efforts. The beating she took today. The possibility to end the war. The mind-blowing art piece Scaglietti put his soul into its creation. The promised family house he so looks forward to. Everything is now gone poof in the air. By the hands of none other than the person she oh so admires and looks up to.

"Onee… Onee-chan?" The clone girl tries sheepishly. "I have to ask this; have you come to help them kill us all?"

"What? No~. I want to save you from doing more bad things." Fate answers with a smile. She called me onee-chan! "Because if you keep going, you will all die."

Then Red Ribbons realizes.

"You are the sister who fought the flying devil, aren't you?" Then she also remembers and puts two and two together. "But you helped her escape, too."

"She's someone dear to me. Like how Alicia is dear to you."

The clone girl holds the datapad dearly in her chest.

"This will bring Alicia back. And there will be no more reason to fight. No more sisters dying!"

Teana stops her wailing. She looks up with hopeful eyes.

"Yes! That's it! You will help, right?"

"Teana!" Fate gives Teana a scornful look. Enforcer Lanster looks at her boss's eyes. She goes back to wailing. Fate shakes her head, approaches the masked sister and gives her a tender hug.

"Sorry, but nothing can bring Alicia back." She meets the surprised eyes behind the mask. "No matter what you try, it cannot be done. I'm the living proof. So are you."

The girl is confused now. Then what is this? Fate explains slowly. If mother does what is written in the datapad, something will happen. Something that will make all the sisters back home unable to fight.

Teana is devastated. Now the plan is laid bare everything is fucked. She buries her head on her knees.

"You are fucking everything up!"

.

The three remain silent for a while, except for Teana's upset sobbing. The senior Alicia clone breaks the silence, with a determined voice.

"But the fighting will end, right?"

Teana looks up with her eyes all red and wet, sobbing. She nods weakly.

"But what if…" The red ribbon girl wonders. "What if mother decides to ignore this? We are winning after all."

"You are not winning!" Teana snaps. The invading girls are fighting against someone who can easily kill every single one of them with a flick of a finger. They are not winning. They are merely allowed to exist. For now. "The only reason she hasn't done it is because she's ordered not to!" Teana yells at the clueless girl.

Red Ribbon digests this unbelievable information. She turns to Fate for a confirmation.

"Is this true?"

Her eyes widen as Fate nods.

"I'm afraid so. The person Teana is talking about is my close friend Hayate-chan. If this keeps going," Fate winces at the idea. "The Bureau will have no other choice but tell my friend to use her power. And then everyone will die."

The clone girl shivers at the thought.

"No. I don't want any more sisters dying." She stands up. "I will go packing."

Teana brightens up. 'Wait, is this girl going to help us?'

"I will convince mother to give this a try." The girl announces her plan.

"Wait, I go with you." Fate offers, but her clone sister shakes the head.

"No, onee… onee-chan. I saw through you when you talked about the boy's things. You won't fool mother for a second. Besides-" She points at Teana squatting on the floor. "-If sisters hear something happened back home because of this, they will kill her. Keep her safe."

.

Red Ribbon waits for Fate to put the mask back on before opening the door. When she leaves Fate turns to find Teana frowning at her.

"Easiest undercover job ever, you said. And you go blow your cover talking about the penis to these virgins. Well done, boss. Very well done."

Before Fate can rebut Teana's remark, a group of little Alicia clones barges in, loaded with countless questions for Teana.

.

Leaving Teana busy with the little girls, Fate walks into a deserted alley to find Zafira, or rather, Zafira finds her.

"Did you know about this, Zafira?" Asks Fate.

"They did tell me something called 'Malware' is coming this way." Zafira is as irritated as Fate is. He thought it was strange they specifically instructed him to stop Fate from interfering. Now he knows why.

"I didn't know it was going to be Miss Lanster setting it up." He shakes his head.

Fate scoffs. Teana can go overboard sometimes, but this is… just too extreme.

"And I bet she's the one who came up with this idea."

"This is only the first half of the operation." Zafira recalls the instruction he received after Teana was picked up. "I've got instruction for you, Chief Enforcer."

"For me?"

"Yes." Zafira nods. Fate is to take Malware to Dr. Testarossa and nudge her mother in the right direction; that is to replicate the magical procedure contained within the datapad.

"You mean I should spam mother until she opens this so-called Malware?"

"Indeed. Like it or not, you are our only asset who can safely reach and face your mother." Zafira explains some more. The Bureau will try to trigger Testarossa to the point where she feels she has the better option in her hands. Fate is to encourage her mother in that direction.

"Ah, well. No." Fate shakes her head. "Job's already taken. Someone else has volunteered."

She looks at Zafira's stunned puppy face. "It's someone we can trust." She then changes the topic.

"So, what's the trigger?"

The puppy soldier checks to make sure there is nobody else listening.

"Show of force. We are going to convince her she will never ever break through."

He then tries to bring the topic back to the… 'What the fuck? Volunteer?'

**#**

.

Reinforce approaches and whispers into Hayate's ears. The commander's eyes go wild, and she looks up from the map she's been studying.

"What volunteer?"

"We don't know." Reinforce grimaces. "But Fate is vouching for the person. Apparently, Malware is already on the way."

Hayate slams on the desk. And once more.

"God damn it, Fate-chan! Why you always-" She stops as all the heads in the hangar have turned her way. She stews in frustration, rubbing her eyes. "Why does she do this to me?"

"What now?" Reinforce asks.

Face-palming, Hayate thinks about it for a while. Success or failure, the outcome of Malware is the diverging point; whether to go to Al Hazard or not. Up to that point, Hayate's job is already set and fixed. Push the invaders back. She sighs and stands up from her seat.

.

Hayate walks up to a semi-circle of stools in the center of the hangar. Her two division commanders are there along with the newly appointed commander of the ad-hoc division provided by Vaizen Defense. Vaizen Air's Bug Boy is also there, sitting next to vacant-eyed Nanoha. To everyone's puzzlement, a Sail Force admiral is also attending.

"Comrades, thank you for coming in such short notice." Hayate walks into the middle of the semi-circle. "I've called you here to inform you that a special mission to induce an implosion within the enemy territory is underway."

Hayate notices glances being exchanged. She continues.

"When triggered, I am promised everyone in Al Hazard will be rendered harmless and unfit for combat."

The Vaizen division's commander raises his hand to ask a question.

"Madam, what is the nature of this so-called implosion?"

"It's classified." Hayate grimaces. "Even to me. But I'm told once it's activated the clones will turn into potatoes." She changes her tone. "Anyway, that brings us to the next phase."

She gestures dramatically, a hand outstretched pointing somewhere in the distance, the other hand on her waist, her face serious.

"Operation Trigger!"

.

The officers do not react, except for Signum who looks very embarrassed. A huge map appears behind Hayate, showing the force placements; A fat red arrow originating from the Staging Dock is horizontally elongated westward, engulfing three small towns in its path, its head touching a blue rectangle named RR. On its far north is another blue rectangle named VTF. On the opposite side is the third blue rectangle named 2DIV. Hayate moves aside so her people can see the map better.

"The implosion is meant to be triggered by the sense of utter defeat in Vaizen. That means we are attacking hard. Very hard."

There is a small cheer. She points at the RR box and continues.

"Rapid Response, roll along the axis. Stomp on whatever is in your path." She points at the first town east of Caledfwlch factory. "Zafira reports this place is full of injured ones, so I don't expect much resistance here. Skip this town if you need to."

The Princess then points at the VTF box.

"Vaizen Task Force division come down from the north and cut them off in the waist."

The Vaizen's division commander acknowledges with a cheerful 'Yes, Madam!', eager to be the anvil for Rapid Response's hammer.

Hayate goes on. Her 2nd division should move a bit more and take up a position north of the industrial zone. Their mission is to pose a threat to the invaders' tail from the south, especially the Staging Dock and the town next to it.

The Princess looks around the room.

"On the ground, we are toe to toe. They have the advantage in individual mage prowess and tankiness. We have the advantage in the coordination and experience. Fight smart, and we can win this."

Bug Boy raises his hand.

"The sky is the problem, madam. We are seriously underhanded, and-" He nervously glances at expressionless Nanoha. "-and with White Devil out of the picture...if they swarm in numbers we can't keep the sky clear; There is a reason she's called the ace of the aces."

Under normal circumstances, Nanoha would be blushing and blurt out some humble lines, but she remains vacant, not really there.

"Yeah...We do with what we have." Hayate scratches her head. Nanoha becoming a potato was not a part of the plan at all. There isn't much they can do except putting some extra efforts in ground-to-air.

"We can do that." Signum chimes in. "It will help a bit, but the fundamental issue is-"

"I know. I know." Hayate cuts Signum off. The Wolkenritter general gets the sign and shuts up, but Bug Boy still goes on.

"Besides, they've started to go at Friedrich. He's a tanky beast for sure, but-"

"I know!" Hayate stomps her feet and puffs cheeks. "We do with what we have. OK?"

Bug Boy finally shuts up and signals defeat.

.

Hayate takes a deep breath to calm herself down before continuing. Once she corners the enemy to the area surrounding the Staging Dock the result of Malware becomes a factor deciding which path she takes.

"First is the continuation of Operation Trigger; we wait up to 48 hours for the signal from Al Hazard. When we get it then we make the final push."

"What's the alternative, madam?" The 2nd division's commander asks.

Hayate frowns. Even though she is the one who drafted and revised plan B, it is something she does not want to see happening for real.

Given the time required for preparing the force to take her place, let alone the abysmal cost efficiency, the higher-ups instructed Hayate to revise her plan. She has thus scraped the idea of a full-scale invasion in Al Hazard. Now she knows Testarossa's war goal, it would instead be a hard-hitting surgical strike on where it hurts the enemy the most and make the war objective unattainable. Hayate knows for sure; If there is anyone who can pull that off in one go, it has to be Signum and her division.

And so, she tells her generals of her plan B. If there is no confirmation of Malware's success within 48 hours, a marine battalion, currently getting ready to sail from an uninhabited world far away from Vaizen, will land in Al Hazard and establish a beachhead.

"Joint Task Force will mop up Vaizen, then ship Rapid Response and half the flight mages to the staging location. From there, we raid Al Hazard." Hayate informs her subordinates, trying to avoid meeting Signum's eyes. The officers murmur among themselves. Defending Vaizen is one thing but going offensive on another world is… that's something completely different.

"Is that why you are here, admiral?" Bug Boy waves to the Sail Force admiral, who nods back.

"That's right. I will be in charge of transporting you out to the invasion staging."

"But-" Signum raises her voice. "But why just Rapid Response? Besides, why not go straight from Vaizen?"

Hayate sighs.

"We still can't close the Vaizen gate, which means there remains the possibility more of them coming here while we move to the staging. We gotta keep the defense up." She then explains the situation inside the Vaizen - Al Hazard path. Sending ships down that route would be suicidal.

"I'm not sending you down that pipe." Hayate lets Signum know.

"What would be our objective in Al Hazard?" Signum gets to the main question. She notices Hayate's eyes going cold.

"Link up with the Marines, and then, by whatever means possible, destroy the Ziggurat where we believe Alicia Testarossa is located at."

Signum is horrified by what that means. Destroy dead Alicia, no more Alicia to revive. Delete the root cause of all this tragedy and crush the grieving mother's hope once and for all.

"And hopefully we kill her mother in the process, too." Hayate adds icily.

"But what about the legal matters?" Asks Bug Boy. "Testarossa still is a citizen, and your martial law command is confined to Vaizen-"

"Al Hazard is not a Bureau territory." Hayate shuts down the question with that simple fact. The officers have to think about it for some seconds before realizing what that means. Although debatable, the clone invaders walking on Vaizen soil are deemed as legit citizens and thus their wrongdoings are in principle Executive Office's job. But when they are outside the Office's jurisdiction and the Bureau's territory…

"Is that what you meant by 'to the letter'?" Signum asks, rather upset. Technically her Princess is not wrong; just being professional and trying to get the job done in a resource efficient way. Nevertheless, all this just does not feel right nor honorable to Signum. 'I go shred a little dead girl?'

Hayate doesn't answer Signum's question, her face indifferent. The officers remain gloomy silent for a minute or so. They, too, are sickened by the cruelty of this so-called alternative solution.

"Jumping in against two hundred thousand enemy-" The Vaizen division commander hesitantly breaks the silence. "Wouldn't it be practically a suicide mission?"

"Yeah. So, let's all pray Malware works."

Avoiding Signum's troubled eyes, Hayate walks off without further words. She did not want to talk about plan B. Now she needs a smoke.

.

Reinforce starts to distribute the document files detailing the Operation. Bug Boy gets his file and quickly jogs after Hayate, catching her up just as she is about to exit the hangar.

"Madam, can I have a word with you?"

Hayate stops and gives him a weak smile.

"Sure, what is it?"

"I'm guessing 'half the flight mages' going to Al Hazard means her." The Vaizen Air Wing's group leader glances at the White Devil, hunched low on her stool shaking legs nervously. "You can't send her to Al Hazard when she's like that." He takes a deep breath.

"Let me go. Vaizen Air will go with Rapid Response."

Hayate looks into the man's sincere eyes. These are not the eyes of a suicidal maniac, but of a concerned man who just wants to make sure the job gets done.

"Thank you, I will keep that in mind. But we go if and only if Malware fails." Hayate heads out the hangar gate. "So, fingers crossed it fucking works."

.

She has barely lit her cigarette when Signum walks out the hangar.

"Hey."

Hayate takes in some quick puffs before responding.

"You know I'm sending you because you are the best, right? There is no one else who can do this. You understand that, right?"

"I don't mind." Signum shrugs. "If you tell me to die fighting I die fighting."

"Don't you ever!" Hayate throws her unfinished cigarette on the ground. Then she pleads. "Please. You and me. We are not like that. Never."

The master of the Tome of the Night Sky, to whom the Wolkenritters have pledged their loyalty to, buries her head in Signum's chest. She was just nine when the four Wolkenritters barged into her life along with the Book of Darkness. Ever since then, for more than twenty years, Hayate has never considered herself as their master nor them as her servants. They are her family. Her friends. Her everything. And she has just acknowledged to Signum's face her plan to send them to a mission which is likely to be a one-way trip.

"Look, I'm not telling you to actually die in Al Hazard, OK?" Hayate looks up from the embrace. "You will come back. You, Vita, Zafira, Subaru, Ginga… everyone. Promise?"

Signum is confused. 'Isn't going to Al Hazard supposed to be the plan B? What about the plan A?'

"You know, you sound like you believe Malware or whatever it's called will fail?"

A look of annoyance passes over Hayate's face.

"There was a last-minute change. Now it's in the hands of some 'collaborator' I didn't even know existed!"

"Is that so?" Signum decides not to ask about the supposed collaborator.

"Would you trust someone who betrays her own family?"

Signum thinks about it for a while. Is she even in the position to judge?

"I don't know… remember we were deceiving you back then? But you still took us in even after you found it out?"

**#**

.

With a 'WOOMP!' a Sail Force frigate ship that looks exactly like Helios emerges from a large transdimensional gate wobbling over a vast flat dust land. It slowly navigates through the three mid-sized marine landing ships hovering well above the ground.

From the Bridge Captain Griffith Lowran spots the beacon designating the area for his new ship.

"Let me out once we park. I want to talk to the battalion CO." Says the Captain of a brand-new Naval Intelligence ship.

As his operators carefully maneuver the ship to the designated spot, the captain observes the marines on the ground. Tents have been set up for the men and women, but he does not see heavier gears. 'Probably all packed and stowed in the landing ships.' Griffith concludes.

These marines will be the first to land in Al Hazard. Their mission; secure a suitable landing space for the Ground Armament Service division and the accompanying Air Wing group. As the only people who have actually been to Al hazard, Captain Lowran and his crew will guide the way. Their new ship is appropriately dubbed Lighthouse to commemorate its role in its first mission. But for now, like the marines, Lighthouse and its crew are on standby, waiting for the go word from Vaizen.

**#**

.

The senior clone with the red ribbon steps out of the dimensional gate, carrying a large cardboard box with an equally large pink ribbon on the lid. She greets the girls manning the gate; Several dozens of sisters have been in the rotating duty of monitoring the path. Red Ribbon chitchats with her sisters, happily handing out some snacks she brought. The girls tell her mother has been informed of her coming. Red Ribbon feels tired after flying through the cold pipe the whole night, but there is no time to rest. She waves to her sisters and flies to the Ziggurat.

On her way, the red ribbon girl recalls what Onee-chan told her. Fate said it will hurt. There are sometimes where one has to hurt oneself and the loved ones because that is the right thing to do.

"Or I can just decide not to do anything, no?" Asked the younger sister. She remembers the sad look on the face, which the broken mask could not hide.

"You can't. Not doing anything would be giving up on the people you love. That hurts even more at the end."

Red Ribbon grits her teeth. For now, she is going to deceive her mother and her sisters. What she does will weaken them, so they are unable to continue the fight.

"But they will eventually recover." Onee-chan said confidently to ease the sister's mind. But Red Ribbon is nervous. She feels like she is going to throw up as the Ziggurat comes closer and closer in her view.

.

She takes a deep breath before entering the throne room.

"Mother, are you well?" The red ribbon girl greets her mother.

"Did you bring it?" Testarossa asks. When the girls told her what they had found, at first, she was skeptical. It was just too convenient. But then again, Caledfwlch hiding their research results is something that they would really do. For now, she has decided to postpone the judgment until having read the paper.

The senior girl with the ribbon puts down the gift box. She approaches the throne, hands over the datapad, and takes a few steps back.

"We found a woman. Arendi archive director? At a place called Caled- Caledf-"

"RnD. And Caledfwlch." The mother corrects the clone girl with a slight irritation in her tone.

Red Ribbon goes over the circumstance the datapad was found, which Testarossa has already heard from the girls in Vaizen during today's morning reporting session.

"I'm indeed intrigued."

Precia Testarossa manipulates the datapad. Several holo-displays pop up. She quickly reads through. She has to do a double-take on the name of the project lead.

"Who would have imagined Scaglietti would sell himself out to corporate idiots." She scoffs. But the name holds some value. 'Jail Scaglietti worked on this?' She keeps reading, immersed. Suddenly she comes to her senses. She turns the displays off and tosses the datapad onto a small table next to the throne.

"I don't need this. We are almost there anyway."

"But mother-"

"You've done what you came for. Now go back to Vaizen."

The senior Alicia clone picks up the gift box, head hung low, disappointed.

"Mother, I've also brought presents for Alicia." Her eyes brighten up. "The girls were very happy to-"

But the mother waves her off not even looking at the girl.

"Leave it there. Now go."

The big box in her arms, the red ribbon girl stands there in silence, with head hung low again. It takes some seconds for Testarossa to realize the girl has not left.

"What are you-"

To her surprise the clone girl gets on the knees, begging.

"Mother, please! Sisters are dying for her sake! At least...at least allow me to give their best wishes to Alicia in person! Please!"

Testarossa is taken aback. She carefully observes the kneeling masked girl; eyes are bloodshot, and knuckles are bruised. There are cracks and dents and mud on the mask, holes and singes and possibly dried blood splatters on the dirty overall. The short blond hairs are unkempt and matted contrasting the pretty polka dot ribbon. The mother suddenly feels a certain pang in her heart. 'What is this?' She slowly stands up and heads towards to backroom.

"Just this once. Follow me."

.

They enter the dark lit backroom, where Alicia is floating inside a cylindrical container, forever sleeping.

The clone girl kneels and takes out the contents of the gift box. She carefully lays them down in front of the container; a simple black dress, a box of chocolates, a pink ribbon, a box of crayons, a pair of yellow dance shoes, a stuffed doll, a toy train-

'I'm sorry, Alicia.' She prays silently. 'I'm really sorry, but you will understand, won't you? You won't be mad.'

Precia Testarossa stands behind the masked girl, watching. As the presents are laid out one by one, her chest heaves. Alicia had wanted a little sister, but that monster of a brat was no good. But this one… and her sisters… They at least care about Alicia. The old mother catches herself almost petting on the girl's head. She quickly withdraws the hand.

The masked girl stands up and turns around, with a yellow artificial flower clasped in her hands.

"And this is for you, mother." She offers the flower. "No matter what, it won't wither; truly beautiful magic."

With a slightly shaking hand, the old mother accepts the fake flower.

**#**

.

It's late in the afternoon in Vaizen, and a lone surveillance orb emerges from the gate at the ruined Staging Dock, much to the nearby girls' puzzlement.

Fate has been waiting, sitting on the ground not far from the gate, munching on a bag of potato chips, with Zafira by her side.

"One orb." She notes.

Zafira stands up, nods to his companion, then trots off to a distance trying to find a secluded area.

.

Half an hour later Reinforce approaches Hayate.

"Malware receipt is confirmed."

Hayate looks up from the report she's been reading.

"Could it be a trap?"

As far as she is concerned, the Bureau has nothing to base their trust in the so-called collaborator girl. All they have is Fate's words, who by the way, sort of forced the Bureau to fight it out in Vaizen in the first place, and now mingles with her sisters on the other side of the front line… This is not going to look good on paper unless carefully worded and thoroughly explained. Hayate can already picture a group of hungry auditors salivating over these facts in the coming months.

Thinking out aloud, the general tasked to end the war weighs her options.

"If it was… what would we lose?"

If the girl talked, Testarossa would know the Bureau wants to do something about Al Hazard. The old hag would then step up the alert level, which would make it harder for the marines. She would also logically conclude the Bureau is afraid of the clone army in Al Hazard coming to Vaizen…

"But then again, it's kinda given we don't want them here. They are invading us, after all."

Hayate thinks some more. Trap or not, she still needs to drive the invaders off from Vaizen.

"That is true." Reinforce agrees to the obvious.

"Fate better be right." Says Hayate through gritted teeth as she punches some buttons to call her unit commanders. "I hope she's right."

The faces of the officers under Hayate's command appear in front of her.

"Everyone, Malware is installed, and we move onto the next step. Operation Trigger is a go." She stands up and gestures dramatically.

"Unleash the-"

"Yes, madam! We attack!"

The officers interrupt Hayate, who stuck awkwardly in her dramatic pose, turns ember red. She stomps her feet, annoyed.

"Every single time!"

.

Major General Signum is leaning on the armor plate of her command vehicle, sipping coffee. In front of her floats the faces of her junior officers.

"Anvil and Punchkid break though. Ginga, I want you to follow behind and mop up. I'm moving the Raptor regiment, too. They will be my reserve."

The colonel nods. Signum continues.

"Caledfwlch is the first objective. Princess has promised them they will get it back as soon as possible."

"Those towns after Caledfwlch…" Subaru asks. "Do you want us to go house to house, or-"

"Leave that to Ginga. You and Vita keep going, OK?" Signum nods to Agito who then loads and shares a map through the communication magic. Whatever Rapid Response pushes back will meet the Vaizen Task Force division coming down from the north.

"If all goes smoothly, you should come in contact with VTF about halfway to the Staging Dock." Signum concludes.

"Right. We will be careful not to shoot them." Says Vita, making notes on the map from her side. She looks up as Subaru asks with a grinning face.

"Permission to scare them a bit?"

Signum, Ginga, and Vita collectively face-palms.

"Hell, no!"


	13. 13: Way of Takamachi

Captain Mondial is crouched on the roof of his armored vehicle running at top speed. He looks ahead; Caledfwlch factory complex is on the horizon. To his far-right, he can see the first element of Punchkid Battalion, driving at top speed in an assault formation. Behind him is his company, and then the rest of Anvil spread out.

A soldier pushes his head out the top hatch.

"Captain, I know this is a glorious moment and all, but I really think you should get in. It's dangerous riding-"

A huge shadow looms over the running vehicle. The young Captain and the soldier look up to find Friedrich the dragon coming lower. Almost on top of the vehicle, Captain Ru Lusche climbs down to Friedrich's belly. Hanging upside down on the harness strap with her legs, her head comes right next to captain Mondial's.

"Hey, Erio!" Caro, upside down, greets with a smile, her hair flapping in the wind.

"Hey, Caro."

"You be careful, OK? Don't get hurt!"

Erio nods with a smile. Caro quickly grabs his head and kisses him on the cheek.

"And get back inside! It's dangerous riding like that!"

And then Friedrich ascends with his lady master climbing back on the mount. Her drag-reducing ribbon passes before the young man's eyes. Erio extends his hand to feel it smoothly running over his fingers. The flight mages of 2nd Squadron dip low alongside the vehicle, cheering and hooting for the young Captain before following their leader up back to the sky, trailing their long ribbon tails.

The soldier at the top hatch enthusiastically waves at the flight mages.

"Woohoo!"

"Move over. I'm getting in." Says Erio, blushing.

.

Getting into the vehicle through the top hatch, he looks ahead once more. A group of the invaders is flying out to meet Midchilda's 2nd Squadron. He sees the Vaizen Air wing making a wide arc to the far left, on a dive course to hit the enemy flight from that side. The sky erupts in colorful flames and explosions as he closes the hatch.

The soldiers inside the vehicle watch the ensuing air battle through the carrier's reinforced windows.

"You must be pretty crazy to willingly fly into that apocalypse." The driver shouts over the noise, shaking his head.

A ranged magic attack lands next to the running vehicle, spraying dirt and shaking it up pretty bad. Seconds later, the entire field around Erio's armored carrier explodes as more attacks come this way. The mounted weapon starts firing into the distance; VTOOM! VTOOM! VTOOM! With a loud bang, the vehicle buckles as its armor deflects a direct hit by javelin magic.

Another soldier taps on the driver's shoulder, grinning.

"Aren't we all?"

**#**

.

A young lad shuffles in his seat inside a cafe located just outside the Cranagan university campus. He nervously fidgets with the coffee mug in his hands, trying to think of something to get the conversation going. An equally young lady sits across the small round table; in her early twenties max, long blond hair in a ponytail. But the most striking feature of her is the captivating odd eyes, which currently smile in anticipation as she knows he is trying.

It took the lad great courage to ask her out for a 'Hey, let's go grab a coffee or something sometime.'

"So, erm… that was pretty boring, eh?" He tries, referring to the lecture they just came out from.

"Dunno." The lady shrugs. "I find it interesting, but the coursework is a bit too much."

"Yeah." The awkward lad nods. "Have you done the assignment yet?"

"Haha. No." She laughs playfully. "Moms are away, so I'm milking every drop of fun while I can." Says the odd eyed lady. "Guess I do it at the last minute."

'Moms.' The lad notes but does not press for an elaboration. He smiles awkwardly as he tries something else to talk about. His eyes wander around the cafe, which is, to his surprise, rather empty for the hour of the day except for three other solo customers, two men and a woman, all sitting alone minding their own business. Come to think of it, they weren't here when he and the young woman walked into the cafe, and he doesn't remember seeing them coming in. They just appeared out of thin air… The lad shakes his head. 'That's not important.'

"So, erm-"

He trails off as he catches her eyes glaring at the cafe's door. He turns his head to see a Ground Armament Service officer who has entered the cafe. The officer makes his way straight to the lad's table but is stopped by the well-built man getting in the way, one of the three lone customers who up to now has been minding his own business.

"Strategic Arms Security Force." The captain flashes his ID. "Can I see your identification, please?"

"Sure." The soldier flashes his own ID.

To the lad's confusion, the two other customers walk up to the soldiers and join the conversation.

"What's up, captain?" The female patron asks. The captain shrugs.

"Capital Defense. ID checks out."

"Hey what brings Capital Defense to her?" Says the other male customer. He flashes his Executive Office badge.

"OK, so, you are Strategic Arms." The officer points at the captain who nods. "Executive Office." He points at the Enforcer who also nods. "Who are you?" He points at the female customer.

"Saint Church." The woman greets with a slight nod.

"Ah, OK. Makes sense." The GAS officer nods. Then to the lad's surprise, he points at the young man.

"And you?"

"Nah~ He's just some kid from the same course." The Enforcer waves it off. "He's OK. All records are clear."

The lad is baffled. He tries to say something, but the lady across the table snaps.

"You checked him out?"

The three cafe customers shrug in unison. Yes, of course, they checked him out.

"Remember the time you were almost kidnapped?" Says the Enforcer.

"You guys keep telling me that, but I don't even remember it ever happening!" The odd-eyed lady protests in a frustrated tone.

"That's because Lanster got them way before they had the chance to." Says the Enforcer with a hint of pride in his voice.

The young lady buries her head in her hands.

"Guys, it's bad enough you are ruining my date." She then quickly turns to the lad. "I mean… this is a date, right?"

"Erm…" The confused lad searches for the right words, but the girl he has a crush on has moved on to the army officer.

"What do you want from me?" She demands, visibly irritated.

.

A couple of hours later in Vaizen, Hayate is busy with the war. From time to time she glances at the corner where her friend Nanoha sits on a stool in front of a holo-display showing the battle status in the air, hunched over, head buried in her hands, listening to the comms.

Hayate sighs and steps out of the hangar for a quick cigarette break. As she lights one up, Reinforce floats out.

"Just got a call from Midchilda. She has accepted your request. They are having everyone sign their waiver at the moment."

"What's taking it so long?" Hayate asks. Then she realizes something. "Wait a second. Everyone?"

"She's going to have quite a big entourage." Reinforce shrugs. The Saint Church insists on their own bodyguards. A team of Strategic Arms escort is also tagging along as the lady in question is a person of secondary interest. On top of that Executive Office also doesn't want anything to happen to their Boss's girl.

"Jeez, so we have a whole army coming in? Even I don't get that many security details assigned on me." Hayate whistles, but she understands. Many years ago, Teana uncovered an eschatologist cult conspiring to blackmail Nanoha and Fate into ending the multiverse. To their credit, they had identified and targeted the right kid. What they didn't know was that they were messing with wrong monsters; the poor souls got nowhere near their intended target. After the incident Saint Church went full paranoid, Executive Office went berserk, and the Strategic Arms added the kid to their list as a person of interest. So, naturally, she coming to Vaizen is sure to make many people and organizations uncomfortable.

"It's a warzone, after all." Says Reinforce, fidgeting.

"Come on, spill it out."

"I'm also assigning our own security team on her. After all, she's a high-value civilian coming into YOUR warzone on YOUR request-"

Reinforce is interrupted by a loud cheer coming out from the hangar. An officer runs out and salutes.

"Madam, report from Rapid Response. Caledfwlch is back in our hands."

**#**

.

It is early evening in the first town east of Caledfwlch factory. The girls are in a panic as badly beaten sisters from the factory trickle into the town. A senior Alicia clone grabs a limping girl passing by.

"What happened?"

"They are coming!"

"What? How?" The senior girl is confused. Up to now, they have been steadily advancing west. 'All of a sudden we are being pushed back?'

"I don't know!" The limping girl cries in defeat. She couldn't comprehend what happened. One minute the girl was sending her javelins at a group of fast approaching soldiers. She ducked down only for a couple of seconds and when she raised her head back up another group of soldiers were on top of her.

The senior clone lets the girl go. She rises up in the air to have a better look. On the horizon are tiny specs of the Bureau's armored vehicles coming this way. Above the dust clouds, she could make out the beast flapping its wings. She gets back on the ground and calls for sisters.

"We can't fight here full of injured sisters. Everyone helps them. We are moving the injured to the Portal first!"

The girls bring out the injured from the houses and gather outside the town. It's a large progression. As they set to move, a group of sisters comes running from the next town further in the east.

"Have you come to help?" The senior clone girl asks.

"What? No!" The leader of the group from the east answers back, confused. "I came to ask for help. We are under attack!" Then she realizes the sisters are on the move.

"You were running away? Why?"

The senior girl gestures to the west.

"They are coming. Help us move the injured sisters back to the portal."

"Didn't you hear what I said? The Bureau soldiers are in the way. We are cut off!"

The senior sister is furious and stomps her feet on the ground.

"Then call for help from the girls at the portal!"

.

There are many Alicia Clones dug in on the battle-worn hill, facing inland with worried eyes as the distant town on the horizon to their west is under attack.

A Senior Alicia clone is shouting angrily to a set of magically shaped ears floating in front of her.

"We can't leave this place! We have soldiers in front of us and to the south!"

She looks to the south. There are tiny specs of Bureau vehicles. Not really doing anything but imposing.

A magically shaped mouth, floating below the ears, lets out a sound.

"What do you mean there are soldiers to your south?"

"I don't know when or how they got here, but they are here, and they are many!" She shouts into the magical ears. "YOU come back and help US defend the portal!"

.

The girls in the town nearest to Caledfwlch factory are in shock hearing there are Bureau soldiers so deep behind their back. The sisters in the next town are under attack, and the girls on the hill and the portal cannot come to help. They are baffled how it came to this.

"We are cut off and no help is coming." The senior clone concludes.

"What do we do?" Asks her peer from the next town.

The former thinks for a bit. She rises up in the air to check on the incoming threat from that Caled-whatever place. With a determined face underneath her mask, she lands down.

"The ones attacking your town. Do they have any flying soldiers?"

"Hmm… No. They don't."

"Alright." The senior Alicia clone addresses her sisters gathered around. "We clearly are not going to break through on foot. But I'm certain great many of them cannot fly." She gestures to other senior sisters.

"Take the injured ones and fly over the Bureau soldiers. Settle them down at the Portal and then help the sisters there defending it."

Her peers nod in agreement. That could work. They will be giving hard-earned grounds, but on the other hand, they will be preserving and consolidating their strength.

The senior Alicia clone calls for volunteers. She needs some girls to go attack the Terminal with her.

"Wait, wait. What are you doing?" Another senior clone stops her.

"They attacked the portal to draw us off the hill, remember? I'm going to try the same by attacking the Terminal."

An injured girl with a singed mask and overall has been listening in silence, but now she panics with horror-filled eyes.

"No, sister! You can't fly there!" She's flailing her arms. "I've been there, and I've been telling again and again-"

"What other choices do we have?" The senior girl gently pats the panicking sister on the head. "You worry about getting to safety."

"But-"

Before the worried girl can finish her sentence, the senior sister is already in the air. A hundred or so girls follow.

.

As the rest of the girls help the wounded and ready themselves to take off, the senior Alicia clone from the next town spots a tall sister dragging the prisoner woman with one hand and the other carrying puppy Zafira.

"Wait. What are you doing?"

Fate shrugs.

"I'm taking her to the gate- I mean the portal. She's one of them so maybe they won't attack when they see her?"

With that Fate puts Zafira in Teana's arms. Carrying her Enforcer colleague princess-style, Fate takes off along with other girls. She wobbles in the air a bit.

"God, you are heavy, Teana." Fate grunts.

**#**

.

An officer manning the sensor looks up from his console.

"Commander, we have airborne passing south of Rapid Response. They seem to head this way."

Hayate clicks her tongue.

"Smart of them… not flying over Signum."

Reinforce relays the comm from the flight mages.

"The flight mages are requesting permission to intercept. Do you-"

"No. Tell them to stay on the mission." Hayate shakes her head, then flashes a smile to her trusted little friend.

"Alright." Reinforce shrugs. "I'll deal with it."

.

With a tiny mug of coffee in her hand Reinforce settles down in front of a console. Channeling her magic, she plugs herself into a console socket and gains control over the remotely operated anti-air guns protecting the Terminal.

"Wow, I'm getting a whole lot better latency than doing it from Midchilda."

"I don't understand what you are saying." Says Hayate.

"It means there is less delay…" Reinforce explains, preparing dozens of holo-displays linked to the guns. "Not that it mattered greatly."

.

The sun has begun to set. Flying in the air, the senior Alicia clone and her sisters spot the Terminal complex on the horizon. Unbeknownst to them, they are being tracked by several dozen anti-air guns located around the Terminal.

.

In the Joint Task Force HQ, Reinforce tilts her tiny head slightly.

.

The senior girl leading the group is shocked and disoriented when something blows her barrier off in one go. She instinctively ascends at top speed. Upon reaching a sufficiently high altitude she turns around to check on her sisters. About half of the girls have simply vanished. The rest of the sisters have followed her to the high altitude, confused and shaken.

The senior clone looks around in search of the enemy. She sees none.

"What? How?"

.

Reinforce takes a sip of her sugar-saturated coffee. She extends her index finger from the hand that is holding the mug.

"Bang!"

.

The girls just explode in the air. Despite their frantic search, they can't see who or what is shooting them. Once the smoke clears, the senior girl notes about thirty girls have survived. They keep moving towards the Terminal, but they are disoriented, in shock, and are left with depleted barriers. The leading senior clone grits her teeth. Her goal is to attack the Terminal and distract the Bureau soldiers from going after the sisters fleeing to the portal. If she cannot even reach the Terminal… At this rate… She shakes her head to focus. She has no choice. There is no turning back now.

"Keep going! To the Terminal!"

She dives. The remaining girls quickly regain their composure and follow her. They fly fast, screaming in anger.

Another volley of explosions fills the air. When the smoke clears there are no more clone girls left in the sky.

.

Reinforce unplugs herself from the console. She returns to her regular duty as if nothing significant has happened.

**#**

.

It's late evening, but the sky isn't dark as the low hung clouds reflect the sporadic flashes of explosions happening in and around the town located far west of the troubled hill. The Vaizen Task Force division has surrounded the area and is assaulting.

The recently appointed commander of this ad-hoc division is pleased. Normally he would not be very happy placing himself between two large groups of enemy front and back. But Capital Defense's 2nd division is posing threat to the Staging Dock area from the south, preventing the enemy from venturing out.

The division commander monitors the feeds from his unit commanders. The defense outside the town has collapsed, and he has given the orders for his soldiers to move into the streets.

"Looks like we will clear this place before Rapid Response arrives." He comments.

As if on cue, a large group of flying clones suddenly appear over the town.

"What the…"

The flying clones ignore the battle happening below and keep flying seaside. The Vaizen division's anti-air guns swivel around, targeting the girls. Curious, the division commander zooms in onto the flying clones using optics magic.

"Shit… Don't shoot! Don't shoot! They are transporting their wounded!"

He waits some seconds, then lets out a sigh of relief as he hears no anti-air guns firing. Yes, the war is a cruel beast, but the general won't stoop so low as to shoot at flying ambulances.

.

The Alicia Clones left in the town rise up into the air helping and carrying their own wounded. They quickly fly towards the seaside, catching up with the previous group.

.

"Are they running away?" An HQ staff muses.

"More like flying away." The division's commanding officer states the fact. "Report to Princess. The enemy has abandoned the middle town. Path is all clear up to the last hill."

The staff officer acknowledges and turns around to his console. The man mutters to himself.

"So, she's now our Princess, too?"

.

Hayate is stomping around.

"Grrrr!"

"What's wrong? We got the path cleared." Reinforce tries to calm the Princess down.

"We assumed they'd fight to death or surrender. Not just up and fly away over the blockade." Hayate flails her arms in frustration. Now there will be a whole lot more enemy at the Staging Dock than she expected.

"Nothing ever goes as I want." Hayate sighs.

.

As the large group of the fleeing clone girls passes over the hill, the senior clone girl from the town in the west lands. She locates a peer and grabs by the lapels.

"You abandoned us!"

"We couldn't leave this place!" The accused girl protests. She points southward. "Look for yourself!"

Capital Defense's 2nd division has finally started moving and is closing on the hill from the far south. The two senior clones turn to the inland. Vaizen Task Force division is maneuvering to the north of the hill, but in the distance, although it's dark, they could see another group of enemy heading straight this way.

The clone sisters do not need to discuss the implication. They are going to be surrounded.

.

Hayate is glaring at the large holo-map in front of her. She angrily taps on the hill some kilometers before the Staging Dock.

"We could try going around and hit the Staging from either north or south?" Reinforce suggests.

Hayate shakes her head. She can't ignore the hill swarming with the enemy. The small town in between the hill and the Dock is also a problem.

"Really… who gave up on this vital position?" She mutters. Hayate turns around to see Reinforce's baffled face.

"But it was you-"

"I was just joking! OK?!"

**#**

.

The red ribbon girl walks into the throne room after returning from the portal. She had made a call to her sisters on the other side and learned of the disastrous news.

She finds her mother dozing off, with the datapad on her lap, slumped in her throne. 'Good. She's been reading.' The clone girl notes. She also notices the flower laying on the small table next to the throne and feels quite sorry for what she is about to do to her mother's dream.

She gestures for the sisters in the room to leave. When the girls are gone, she lets out a dry cough. This wakes up Precia Testarossa. The mother recognizes the ribbon.

"What's this? I thought you went back to Vaizen?"

"Mother, I came to deliver disappointing news."

Precia Testarossa sits up in her throne.

"We've suffered a crushing defeat." Red Ribbon reports, relaying the news she has heard from the girls in Vaizen. "The Bureau soldiers are closing on the portal."

Testarossa is visibly shocked.

"How? We were this close to the Terminal!"

"We lost all the grounds we had previously gained."

Her mother's jaw drops.

"In a single day?"

The red ribbon girl nods. She winces as her enraged mother pounces on the throne's armrest.

"Fight them off!"

Precia Testarossa abruptly stops as she catches the clone girl's eyes on the datapad.

"Leave. Go fight in Vaizen." She throws the datapad onto the small table. It lands with a clang next to the fake flower. "I don't care if you die. Get. Me. To. The. Terminal! Now leave!"

Red Ribbon bows and walks out of the throne room without saying a word.

**#**

.

Operation Trigger's advance has come to a screeching halt at the foot of the troubled hill. The clone army has formed an elongated defensive perimeter encompassing the hill, the small town, and the Staging Dock. From three sides the Bureau soldiers are throwing everything they have barring orbital bombardments, yet the clone invaders are firmly holding their positions.

Eyes bloodshot, Signum yawns and checks the time. It's about midnight. The battle in the east has been going on for hours yet the progress has been way to slow much to her frustration.

Vita's angry voice ringing in the division's communication magic catches Signum's attention.

"Fuck you, Subaru! They are using the holes and trenches you dug!"

"Hey, you dug holes, too!" Subaru's voice protests.

"On the other side! Not this slope!"

Signum yawns again. It's only been some weeks but feels like the humiliating defeat on the cursed hill happened years ago. She can't remember the last time she slept. She knows she did get some bits and pieces of sleep every now and then, but those clearly are not enough. Signum doesn't even know anymore what she is pumping into her body in order to keep herself awake. Caffeine tablets, coffee, black tea, green tea, sugar lumps, whatever. If it looks like it's going to keep her from falling asleep unconscious she'd chuck it down her throat. 'It's remarkable you are not shaking like mad.' Agito once observed.

Ginga's annoyed voice in the comm channel startles Signum.

"Who the fuck built those bunkers?!"

"Subaru!" Vita is screaming. 'She's probably frothing in her mouth, too.' Signum chuckles to herself.

"Why is it always my fault?!"

"Why the hell did you build bunkers on this side?!" Vita yells at Subaru. "When did you even find the time-"

"Ladies, my question is;" Ginga interrupts Vita's rage-filled bitching. "How the fuck did you guys even lose this fortress of a hill?"

"Shut up!" Vita and Subaru for once unite against Ginga.

Signum stops Agito from getting on the officer's comm.

"But this is getting out of hand." Agito protests, wanting to tell the field officers to shut the hell up.

"It's what keeps them going." Signum smiles wearily. "Leave them be."

**#**

.

Red Ribbon walks into the throne room yet again to find Precia Testarossa pacing around.

"What's happening? Have we pushed them back?" The mother demands impatiently. "Talk to me!"

"The girls are holding the ground bravely. The Portal is safe. For now." The red ribbon girl reports.

The old mother throws a glance at the datapad. She forces her eyes off of it and starts to pace around again.

"Send more girls! I need that Terminal! Send everyone!"

The senior clone bows and walks out of the room. Her sisters come up to her with questions.

"What does she say? What do we do?"

Red Ribbon doesn't answer immediately. She is deciding.

"What does mother say?" The sisters urge her.

"Nothing." Red Ribbon has made her mind up. "She said nothing. Mother… wants to be alone." She chokes a bit. "Let's just have faith in the sisters fighting in Vaizen."

The girls grumble and walk away. When she's finally alone, the senior Alicia clone collapses on the floor on all her fours, silently weeping. Lying is much harder and painful than she has expected.

.

Testarossa paces around alone in the room, fuming, but she abruptly stops. She realizes she has to keep her head cool. She takes a few deep breaths and sits down on her throne, thinking.

The Bureau is pushing back her girls. That means they have scrambled a large enough force and are throwing it against the clones, which in turn means once she shatters them the path to her goal would be pretty much clear all the way. Sending more girls is the right course of action, she concludes. Now, she has to let the girls do their job for she the old herself is not any better than her own creation when it comes to face-to-face brawling. She has to rely on the Alicia clones she oh so abhors.

Precia finds herself eying the datapad on the small table. She takes it and starts to read again.

As much as she hates to admit, Scaglietti is a genius. He approached the problem from a completely out-of-box angle and the result is… it really seems feasible. Further studying the memos and internal communication, it seems Caledfwlch commissioned a couple of outside researchers to review Scaglietti's work. Under non-disclosure terms spanning a lifetime, of course. She has never heard of the peer reviewers, Dr. Fuch and Dr. Lonster, but what they wrote are sensible. 'Must be of the new generation kids.' Testarossa assumes. Scaglietti is right, both Fuch and Lonster agree, but he's only theoretically right because there is no way anyone would be able to secure the required power input; hence practically impossible to verify.

'Ha!' Precia scoffs. These kids don't have what she has. They probably don't even know there exists such magical power.

It doesn't surprise her that Caledfwlch has kept this a secret. The internal memos make it clear that the management was afraid the prospect of dead soldiers coming back to life would cut into their combat droid business. The plan was to hold it for a long time. Only when they have milked the last drop of money from the droid business they would then announce the revival technique as a basis to secure the Bureau's funding to back their research in the required magic power input. That would secure decades of funding for the company.

'Typical corporate pigs.' Dr. Testarossa is bitter. In this regard, she is puzzled why someone like Scaglietti would work for Caledfwlch. But then again, she hasn't been in touch with the rest of the multiverse for over four decades…

She resumes reading.

'This could work.'

She starts to take memos; taking apart every bit and piece of the revival procedure Scaglietti has proposed, checking the logic and validating the calculations. Good thing the girls left me alone, she mutters to herself. 'Otherwise, they would think I'm actually going to do this.' Not that she cares what they think.

**#**

.

Fate is standing on large debris flown out of Helios, watching the battle going on around the town outside the Staging Dock and on the hill beyond the town. The mixed sound of explosions and battle cries and magical discharges and painful screams rumble over the plain under the midnight sky where tiny dots of living breathing people zigzag across trying to kill each other.

'If I gather them in one place and put up a barrier…' Fate wonders. She could at least keep the sisters safe for a short while. But on the other hand, the risk is too big. 'If my barrier cracks, everyone would die…' And she is sure she cannot tank the might of Capital Defense's firepower for long.

She wants to go, but forces herself to stay, glancing down at Teana sleeping on the dirty ground.

"You need to be with her when the shits hit the fan." Says Zafira.

"I know!"

Fate throws her eyes back to the battle outside. The midnight sky is eerily illuminated by flickering lights of explosions and deadly magic flying around. Suddenly, over the rumbling sounds of the battle, a bloodcurdling beastly roar rolls across the plain.

.

"Friedrich!"

Caro puts a hand down on the dragon's head to calm him down. He is in pain.

"He's hurt! He's hurt!" Bug Boy screams over the comm. He flies under Friedrich to check and is promptly sprayed with thick blood.

"He's bleeding bad! Fuck!"

Captain Ru Lusche hugs the hurt dragon, ascending straight up against the moon. She lays her head against the dragon's back to feel the large heart thumping.

"You've done well, Friedrich." Caro whispers. "It's time for you to rest."

The dragon lets out another roar in protest.

"Shhh… It's alright. I will see you later."

Caro jumps off Friedrich, and the dragon disappears immediately. The sight of Captain Ru Lusche free-falling horrifies the Vaizen flight mages. Bug Boy desperately tries to catch the falling lady. He grimaces at the sound of a loud cheer coming up from the ground. The Alicia clones are celebrating the defeat of the mighty dragon.

A dark mist forms around falling Captain Ru Lusche. The sight of her petite body is briefly blocked by a cloud, but when she reappears, she is riding on the back of a pitch-black monster triple the size of Friedrich. She ascends again and stabilizes with the moon on her back; the monster flapping its impossibly massive wings.

"What the fuck…" Bug Boy cannot believe what he sees.

The monster lets out a roar even more frightening than Friedrich's, the sheer volume of the sound shakes the air and rumbles over the ground. Then from its mouth, shoulders, and the chest, beams of white-hot flames shoot out so suddenly, incinerating everything in the paths.

.

The girls on the hill feel the intense heat from the death ray passing over their heads. They panic and some even try to run away.

"Hold the ground! Don't run!"

The senior clones are desperately trying to rally the sisters. Yes, that's one big scary monster. But they've dealt with the other one just now.

"Don't be afraid! It's only a monster!" A senior girl shouts. "Don't fear that thing. We fight here!" She raises her glowing beam blade high, and the girls stop running. Several other senior clones join the sister.

"For Alicia!"

The group of elder girls rockets into the air, screaming on top of their lungs. With determined battle cries their sisters follow them into the air. Soon the sky is filled with a massive swarm of clone sisters, heading straight to the newly appeared apocalyptic beast.

.

Hayate paces around in the hangar. The Vaizen division and her 2nd division are pressing the small town from both north and south, but the enemy's mutually supportive defense running through the town from the Staging Dock to the problematic hill is strong. The girls have succeeded in consolidating their numbers in the area and the clones on the high ground are raining deaths down on the field despite themselves being assaulted by Signum's Rapid Response. Overall, their resistance is heavier than Hayate has anticipated.

Hayate has noted Caro resorting to pulling out Voltaire the Black Fire dragon. She is not the expert in the field of aerial combat, but as far as she knows Voltaire is more of a siege platform, not a nimble air-to-air fighter like Friedrich. If the clone sisters swarm him Voltaire would have bit of a problem. Not only that; the very fact that Caro has no choice but to sub in Voltaire for Friedrich means the flight mages are already having a bad time.

'I guess Nanoha knows this.' Hayate glances at her troubled friend, who is listening to the comms between her fellow flight mages with vacant eyes.

"All flights! That's our best asset in the sky. Protect Dragonling at all cost!"

Bug Boy's voice booms out of the console Nanoha is sitting at. Hayate can tell from the voice the man is pissed.

"Come, you little pieces of-" The Vaizen Air's group leader cusses.

As the chaotic comms and the reports and instructions and profanities spill out of the console, Nanoha buries her head deeper and deeper, and finally, she covers her ears, shaking badly.

Reinforce approaches Hayate and whispers.

"Caro summoning Voltaire means she is-"

"I know." Hayate whispers back. She glances at cowering Nanoha. She really needs the White Devil out there in the air.

"She can't go out like that-"

A beep interrupts Reinforce. She blinks a couple of times to go through the message that has just arrived. The tiny floating lady cheers up a bit.

"About time. She's arriving. ETA 15 minutes."

"Finally." Hayate brightens up. "I'll get going."

Hayate throws one last look at her whimpering friend before heading out of the hangar.

**#**

.

It's middle of the night, but the special VIP gate inside the Terminal's arrival platform is brightly lit. The platform is empty except for a group of heavily armed soldiers guarding the area.

A large group of armed men and women emerges from the special gate. They are all wearing different uniforms; some from the Executive Office, some from the Strategic Arms escort, some from the Saint Church. They are highly alert, weapons drawn; seemingly surrounding a single person in the middle. The Strategic Arms' captain steps up and salutes Hayate.

"Lieutenant general."

"Captain." Hayate salutes back. "It's been a while seeing you. You've been babysitting her?"

The captain of the Strategic Arms security team assigned to the Takamachis nods. Hayate looks over the man's shoulder.

"Quite a large group you brought."

The captain turns around and eyes the mixed team of armed escorts. He points at a Saint Church member.

"Meatshield for the Heiliger Kaiser." He moves his finger to an Executive Office member. "Meatshield for their Chief's girl, and then-" He then points at himself. "Just doing my job; meatshield."

Hayate waves to her soldiers. They lead the group to an armored vehicle parked outside the special gate reserved for VIP travelers. The men and women surround the vehicle as the person they escort gets inside. Hayate gets inside, too, sitting next to the young blond lady. The vehicle slowly rolls off with the meatshields jogging along.

.

"Thank you for coming." Hayate greets the young odd-eyed woman.

"It's OK, auntie Hayate. I always wanted to see you in action."

"I'll get straight to the point." Hayate leans in. "Nanoha is in bad shape."

That makes the special guest worried.

"Is mom alright? What's wrong with her?"

Hayate gestures outside the windshield.

"You know we are fighting against… what's practically Fate's clone sisters?"

The young lady nods. She's seen the news. Hayate continues.

"They are all wearing masks, so you don't see their faces." Hayate glances at her guest to make sure she's following. "But Nanoha sees the faces. Do you understand? It's all in her head-"

"Erm…"

"Ever since she found out who they are, she's been knowingly slaughtering Fate-chan again and again." Hayate makes a repeated slashing motion with her hands, then stops realizing she's making things unnecessarily gruesome. "Maybe it's her sense of duty. Or maybe she thought it was the right thing. She kept going at it, killing Fate-chan again and again. But it's all in her head, do you get it?"

And what does Nanoha do?

"She never told anyone about this. She joked. She chit-chatted. She drank coffee with us. And she went out to fight every day." Says Hayate looking out the reinforced window. They are almost there at the hangar.

"But she's killing countless Fate-chan every sortie, until-"

"Oh my god…" The young lady gasps.

"-until she couldn't take it anymore. Now she's all messed up." Hayate sighs. "I don't know what to do."

There are only three people in the multiverse who can get Nanoha out of the hellhole she's in. Fate is out of reach on the other side of the front line, and Hayate herself has failed spectacularly. She takes her very special guest's hand.

"You are my only hope, Vivio."

**#**

.

Nanoha is cowering, whimpering, listening to the comms between the flight mages.

"Get them off of Dragonling!" Bug Boy's voice is screaming.

Somebody complains there are too many enemies in the air. Then Caro's frustrated voice rings out.

"Get off my Voltaire, you pesky little-"

Bug Boy yells at Caro to ascend, but she is being swarmed. Somebody warns the Vaizen leader of a group of enemies on his own six. And a series of incomprehensible grunting and shouting and alerting each other relentlessly torments Nanoha's ears.

Eyes shut tight, the White Devil covers her ears, breathing heavily. She is about to let out a shriek.

"Mom?"

Nanoha doesn't seem to have heard it. She shrivels up in agony.

"Mom?"

Vivio Takamachi shakes the fabled White Devil; her mom.

"Mom? Mom! Mama!"

Nanoha opens her eyes and looks up. She is startled to see her daughter in front of her. Upon realizing it's Vivio she at first gives a weak smile, then she's furious. There is only one legit way Vivio, a civilian, can come to Vaizen. Nanoha jumps at Hayate, latching onto the lapels, frothing in the mouth, face red with rage.

"You brought Vivio to a warzone? Are you mad?!"

Vivio tries to pull Nanoha off auntie Hayate.

"Mom, relax! Let her go." But her mother is strong, "Let. Her. Go!"

Nanoha reluctantly takes her hands off of Hayate but is still fuming with rage. Vivio tries to calm her mother down.

"Mom, relax, please. You are here. Auntie Hayate is here. What danger can possibly come my way? You are here." She looks around. "I'm in the safest place in the entire multiverse."

Vivio quickly turns to her accompanying bodyguards.

"I mean no offense to you guys."

Her escorts murmur "none taken", "sure", "it's alright", etc., but they aren't very pleased. At this point Hayate steps away silently, gesturing for the others to do the same. They make space for the mother and the daughter.

.

Vivio sits Nanoha down on a stool and kneels before her mother.

"Mom, talk to me. What's wrong?" She takes Nanoha's hand. "Is it about Fate-mama's sisters?"

"Oh god…"

Nanoha pulls her hand from Vivio's and covers her eyes. She finds it hard to put her mind into words, but Vivio insists.

"Fate says they are good girls. I could tell they are good girls-"

"Good, mom, keep talking to me."

"I don't know why." Nanoha starts. "I can't tell Fate apart from them, and I can't tell them apart from Fate!"

"Well, Fate-mama is a good girl, too. That must be why." Says Vivio. "Besides, they are all clones, so…" She adds rather unnecessarily.

Nanoha tells her daughter she has been knowingly and willingly killing countless good Fate-chan again and again like it's nothing.

"And… all they wanted-" Nanoha hiccups, crying. "-they just want their sister to wake up! And I'm the heartless monster stopping them- Not even caring if it's Fate-chan!"

Vivio is visibly shocked. Mom a monster? Well… in some aspects, yes, but…

"Mom, what are you saying? You are not a monster!"

"Do you know what they call me? They call me the flying devil."

"No~. You are not a devil. You are THE White Dev- Wing!"

Nanoha has stopped crying somewhat, but still sighs and hiccups between every sentence. She looks into her daughter's special eyes and tells what's been in her mind for the past weeks.

"Vivio, the more I think about it the more I think we shouldn't stop Testarossa."

Vivio gasps. What is mom saying?

"Listen, Vivio. I'd do the same. If something happened to you I'd do the same."

Nanoha is about to burst into tears again. Vivio quickly grabs mom's hands.

"Mom! That woman killed boatloads of people! She invaded Vaizen!" Vivio shouts. There is no way Nanoha would do that. "She- she- that woman abused Fate-mama for years! And now she's forcing these girls to carry out bad things!"

"I'd do the same!" Nanoha wails.

"No, you wouldn't!" Vivio snaps at her mother. "Even if you did and brought me back to life, I wouldn't be happy!"

Nanoha is stunned. She inhales sharply and stares at Vivio with confused blinking eyes.

"But-"

"Mom, if you did what that woman is doing, I'd be happy somebody tried to stop you." Vivio squeezes her mom's hands, locking her eyes onto Nanoha's. "I'd root for them to stop you from doing evil things."

Nanoha's eyes are no more vacant.

"But-"

"No." Vivio shakes her head. "I'd die of shame, mom. I'd die of sadness. Of what you have become for my sake. I'd even wish I was never born so you wouldn't be an evil monster… do you want that, mom? Do you?"

Midway in her sentence, Vivio notices her mother has started to pay more attention to what's being said in the flight mages' comms. Vivio turns her head to the console to have a better listen; lots of cussing and screaming and chaos is going on.

"God damn, how I wish White Devil was here!" Bug Boy is complaining in the comm.

"White Wing…" Vivio is sure she heard her mom's tiny voice correcting the man.

"I've cleared my front, but-" Vivio recognizes this voice. It's Caro's, who seems to be in trouble. Suddenly the shouting and cussing intensify in the comm, obviously indicating another set of deadly events happening in the sky.

Vivio eyes her mother. Nanoha is obviously listening to and following the comm, muttering inaudible orders to the distant flight mages in a tiny voice. Vivio waves her hand before Nanoha's face to get the attention. The mother comes to her senses and acknowledges her daughter's presence.

"Sorry… I was just-"

"Go." Vivio smiles at her troubled mother. "Auntie Hayate needs you up in the air. People need you in the air. Even those girls. They need your help, too."

"But I-"

"Shh…" Vivio stops Nanoha's protest. "You go talk to these girls."

"What are you saying?" Nanoha is confused.

"Mom, you said they are good girls… But they are doing that old hag's work just like Fate-mama did. You gotta stop them first! Beat them up if you have to."

Nanoha opens her mouth to say something, then shuts up, then opens it again, and shuts up again. Yes, she did indeed beat up Fate pretty bad when she decided they would become friends. More than good friends.

"That's the way of Takamachi, mom. That's our way." Vivio stands up. She sees her mother is back to normal. "I think you are ready to talk to the girls. Go tell them to stop. Now, go!"

There is a glint of purpose in Nanoha's eyes. She springs up.

"Captain!"

The captain of the Strategic Arms security team snaps to attention.

"Yes, madam!"

Nanoha points at her daughter.

"Captain, take Vivio back home right now. She has classes in the morning."

"Yes, madam!" The captain does a textbook salute.

Nanoha storms out of the hangar, not even looking back at her daughter. Hayate rushes after her friend with a gleeful smile on her face.

"Damn it, at least kiss me goodnight or something." Vivio pouts.

The captain approaches with a big smile.

"That's the way of Takamachi, too, I guess."

**#**

.

"Raising Heart, I need to get there really fast." The White Devil is back in business. "I mean real fast. Help me out, please."

"I will do my best." The intelligence device answers in monotone, but Nanoha senses the enthusiasm in the synthesized voice. After all, they've been together for nearly thirty years.

"Thank you. I'm once again counting on you."

Nanoha lowers her stance, getting ready to take off. From the nape of her jacket, the hood extends over the head, lowering a transparent visor before her eyes. From the back of her waist, two long ribbon-like tails flap out. She is ready to fly. Raising Heart glows red illuminating the dimly lit ground just outside the hangar.

.

Inside the Strategic Arms' command bunker located deep underground in an undisclosed uninhabited world, shits hit the fan as a loud alarm blares repeatedly. Uniformed personnel rush to and from here and there, furiously working on their devices and consoles to figure out what the heck is going on.

On a wall inside the command center is a large holo-display. Currently, it shows the map of Vaizen next to a large profile of Nanoha. One section of the profile shows "SS", which flashes in alarming red.

.

Hayate rushes out of the hangar just in time to catch the glimpse of Nanoha taking off.

"Yeah! Nanoha! Go, Nano-"

Nanoha blasts off with an incredible force, leaving a large crater on the ground. The shock wave knocks Hayate ass first back into the hanger. As the wavefront hits the structure, windows shatter and stuff falls from the ceiling.

Hayate lies on her back, covered with dust and glass shards. She shakes her fist in the air.

"Nanoha, you goddamned menace!"

.

The Liaison Officer rushes into the command center where the alarm is still blaring. He curses his luck; he was visiting from Midchilda to discuss with the command what to do about Lightning hanging around on the other side of the front line.

"What's going on?" He demands to know.

"We have a breach on Doomsday's limiter, sir!" A bunker operator dutifully reports.

"What? How?"

The officer looks up at the large display of Doomsday's profile. The "SS" rank is flashing red.

"How the hell-"

"Inner layer completely gone! Outer layer is being overloaded!" Another operator informs the room, which sets off another frantic typing into consoles and datapads.

The Liaison Officer digests this information. The breach is happening from the inside?

"Wait, the inner layer is gone first?"

The operators point at the large display.

"Sir, it's her doing it. Doomsday herself is shattering the limiter by overloading it!"

On the large display, a thick pink dot is careening across the plain of Vaizen.

"Can she do that?"

The "SS" rank on the profile stops flashing red. It glitches to garbled letters and numbers for a while, then finally settles at "?" An operator points at that particular section.

"Welp, apparently she can."

The bunker goes silent except for the annoying alarm blaring. All eyes are on the pink dot cutting across the Vaizen map at an impossible speed. Doomsday is completely free.

**#**

.

Back in Vaizen the battle still rages on. The hill is smothered with explosions and smokes, with endless streams of deadly magic flying up and down the slope as Rapid Response tries to gain a foothold on the hill.

The air is saturated with sparkling mana residues as the flight mages from both sides zigzag across the night sky. The clone swarm has managed to surround the Bureau flight mages who fight back with tooth and nail. Voltaire the Black Fire sprays his death rays across the sky, killing many, but the masked girls are relentless. Despite the support from her colleagues Caro struggles to maneuver gigantic Voltaire out of the blob.

Suddenly, Nanoha's voice enters the local communication magic.

"All flights, get out."

The nonchalant way the White Devil made her demand sends a shiver down Caro's spine and makes her face go pale. She knows Nanoha well enough to know what is to follow.

A mixture of pink and white smudge of a mass shatters through the blob and comes to an abrupt halt right in the middle of the enemy swarm. The sheer force of it coming to a full stop sends out a ripple of magical shock, knocking everyone in the area back several meters.

"I said get out."

Nanoha flicks her staff, and Voltaire is forcefully pushed out of the encirclement, knocking the confused clone girls out of the way in the process.

Floating alone in the night sky, Nanoha surveys the battlefield. The reality around her wobbles and shimmers as the Vaizen world bends over backward to accommodate this impossible presence.

Captain Ru Lusche, panicking, tries to get as far away from her group leader as possible.

"Everyone, get out! Leave now!" She screams into the comm.

The clone girls, on the other hand, grit their teeth. They haven't seen the flying devil for weeks they were about to think she was dead.

"She's back! The flying devil!" The masked sisters shout.

The Bureau flight mages desperately try to get away from their colleague, while the swarm of the clone girls converges on the target, determined to kill the flying devil once and for all. At all costs.

"Raising Heart, a big bang, please." Nanoha gauges the enemy numbers. "A big one. Really really big bang."

"Yes, madam." Raising Heart answers in its monotone.

Nanoha looks at the Alicia clones with a sad expression. She takes a deep breath.

"There are so many things we should talk about… but first-" The White Devil raises her staff high. "-survive this!"

The sky is suddenly filled with a blinding light of pink with a shade of crimson.

.

From the Staging Dock, Fate sees the massive ball of pink and crimson light in the distant sky above the hill. It stays there for about ten seconds, then suddenly disappears.

"That was Nanoha!"

She zooms in using optics magic and spots her beloved in the night sky.

.

The clone girls are raining down from the sky like rocks.

"What the fuck, White Devil! What the fuck?!" Bug Boy's confused, yet excited voice fills the comm.

Nanoha surveys the sky. There is no more enemy in the air.

**#**

.

The JTF HQ staff in the hangar watch the tactical feeds from the front line with their mouths open. Vivio stands next to Hayate, watching the holo-displays with a hand covering her open mouth.

"Did she just nuke Vaizen?" One of Hayate's staff asks no one in particular.

"Nah~" Hayate smiles. She glances at Vivio by her side. "That was just a big-"

"This is not fair!" Vivio exclaims, a bit upset. "She went easy on them!"

All heads in the hangar turn to her.

"Excuse me? That's going 'easy'?" An officer asks Vivio to elaborate. The young Takamachi flails her arms.

"She went full power Starlight Breaker on me! Can you believe it? Now she goes all soft on Fate-mama's sisters!" Vivio complains.

"And you survived that?"

"Yeah, obviously." Vivio rolls her eyes. "And I was only six at that time, too! Grrr!" She grinds her teeth, unwittingly releasing a piece of information that would later be completely taken out of context and become a strange rumor about the White Devil.

"Yeah, but I heard you were in your big-boob mode then." Says Hayate, unintentionally drawing everyone's attention on Vivio's chest.

.

Commander Yagami clears her throat and calls Nanoha flying over the battlefield.

"White Devil, could you also do that hill while you are at it?"

"Has Vivio gone home?" Nanoha answers back with a question. The strict mother has memorized her girl's course timetable. "She has classes in the-"

"Eh… yes." Hayate lies, winking at Vivio to keep quiet. "Nanoha-chan, the hill? Please?"

"Sure. By the way, Hayate-chan. About you smoking again…"

"Erm… yeah."

"You shouldn't, Hayate-chan." Her friends flying the sky some hundred kilometers to east scolds over the comm. "It's bad for reproduction."

Hayate's face turns red. She rages. 'Oh, the audacity! YOU, a freaking lesb-' Feet stomping, Hayate yells into the comm.

"I don't need YOU of all people lecturing me about reproduction!"

.

Nanoha chuckles and cuts off the comm. She waves and tells her fellow flight mages to stay away. Stay far away. Raising Heart transforms to the cannon mode, charging, drawing all the sparkling mana residues floating in the area.

.

From the Staging Dock, Fate sees her friend priming for an attack on the hill. She realizes there is very little time. She screams to the nearby girls.

"Get the girls off the hill! Get them off now!"

The masked sisters are confused but comply with the commanding tone of the voice. They frantically summon series of magical ears and shout into them.

.

On the hill, there is a commotion. The clone sisters are shouting. After a very short argument, most of them rise up into the air, carrying and helping wounded; many of them Nanoha's victims. They fly off to the residential town to the east, abandoning the hill. A handful of girls still insist on holding the ground, ignorant of what is to come.

.

Nanoha waits for the last Bureau soldier to get off the hill and to safety. Once she is sure there won't be any 'unintended' casualty, she softly whispers to her trusted partner.

"Onegai, Raising Heart."

From the glowing red spherical core of her magical cannon, a massive beam of pink and crimson violently shoots out and hits the hill, obliterating it, pushing it down, exploding and hammering down the heap of soil and rocks, effectively changing the Vaizen map.

The White Devil floats in the sky waiting for the dust to settle down. She turns around when someone taps on her shoulder. The flight mages have formed up around her, all eager to see the result of Nanoha's terraforming work.

The dust cloud clears somewhat. There is no more hill standing but a massive crater. Bug Boy, a native to Vaizen, sighs.

"Just so you know, that hill is-" He shakes his head and corrects himself. "-was the only habitat for the Seven-legged Vaizen Spiders."

"What's that?" Asks Nanoha, her eyes on the massive crater, pleased with the result.

"An endangered… now extinct species."

"Oh…"

Bug Boy extends his hand.

"Anyway. Welcome back, White Devil."

"White Wing! Goddmn it!"


	14. 14: She Needs Help?

Lighthouse sits quietly cloaked inside a small cul-de-sac space-time pocket only a sail-hour away from Al Hazard. The path forward is deliberately not opened up yet, but a hairline-thin connection is kept open between the pocket dimension to the Bureau world. Through this impossibly small channel Lighthouse maintains its communication magic with Naval Intelligence's mission control.

"JTF has informed the 48-hour countdown will start at-" The Senior Mission Operator tells captain Lowran the designated time.

"Understood. Are the marines getting ready?" Asks Griffith.

"Yes, captain. They are boarding right now."

Sitting in his captain's chair, Griffith drums his fingers on the armrest. If no words of so-called Malware's success reach him by the time the countdown ends, Lighthouse is to enter Al Hazard and establish a covert travel path for the marine battalion. After that...

Throughout his career sailing for Naval Intelligence, he's played countless waiting games. But he can already tell now. The next period of 48 hours is going to feel the longest. Like an eternity.

**#**

.

Fate wakes up damp thanks to the early morning drizzle. Lying sideways with a little clone girl in her embrace, she shivers as the breeze from the sea grazes over the ruined ground of the Staging Dock.

She feels the warmth of Teana's body on her back. Turning her head, she notes Teana is still sleeping, which is a feat of its own given the situation they are in. Fate then notices the little girl in her arms is cold. And rigid. Fate gasps and sits up. There wasn't much she could do to stop the internal bleeding except comforting the little kid afraid of what's to come. But obviously, that wasn't enough to keep the girl alive. The little has sister passed away during the short hour Fate fell asleep.

Fate spent the entire night tending to the wounded sisters. Combat wounds were gruesome, but something Fate is used to. She cast the rudimentary healing spell she knew whenever no one was looking. When she couldn't do that, or the injury was beyond her basic healing magic, she had to contend with the first-aid measures that would only delay the inevitable unless proper medical treatment was administered. She went scavenging what's available in the dock worker's town. Medicine cabinets were raided, curtains and bed linens were torn, and furniture was smashed to be used as splints...

Those girls who miraculously survived falling from the high altitude were having it rough. Fate is afraid not many of them are going to make it unless they get professional help very soon.

The clone sisters, understandably, felt the safest near the gate at the Staging Dock, and thus have moved the wounded to the ruined facility. That meant Fate and the group of sisters helping her had to make multiple trips to the town to fetch whatever they needed for treating the wounded girls. She doesn't remember how many runs she made during the night, but her aching body tells her she made more than enough trips.

The Staging Dock area is packed with the Alicia clones. The town west of the facility is none the better. The girls are devastated. Many are sitting on the ground, heads hung low, wet and cold, tired and hungry.

Fate stands up and slowly surveys the area. She knows the Bureau has surrounded the Dock and the town in a few kilometers wide semi-circle. She can spot the flight mages patrolling the sky; Voltaire's imposing presence difficult not to notice.

"The 48 hours countdown kicked in two hours ago." Zafira whispers settling himself down by Fate's feet.

"So, they won't attack?"

"As long as these girls stay put, Princess won't attack."

Fate turns her head towards the gate. She has made her mind up. When Malware or whatever it's called fails, she must go. She will need to convince the girls first, but she will manage it somehow and bring the sisters back to Al Hazard, to safety. There she will confront her mother. There will be no more fighting in Vaizen. She will go if it comes to that. Even if it means leaving everything and everyone she holds dear behind. Nanoha will understand. Vivio will understand. This has to end.

But then again, Fate doesn't really wish to go, so she hopes the sister with the polka dot ribbon makes it work.

**#**

.

Red Ribbon takes a deep breath and walks into the throne room.

"You! You again! Why it's only you coming to tell me anything?" The old mother yells at the clone girl, who waits for her mother to calm down a bit.

"Mother, the girls are afraid to bring disappointing news."

"And you are not?"

Red Ribbon does not answer. Precia glares at her for a while but then leans back on the throne.

"So, what is this another disappointing news?"

The senior Alicia clone takes another deep breath.

"Mother, we've lost it all. We have nothing left but the portal."

Her mother jumps up in disbelief, shocked.

"But we've sent more girls!"

"It didn't matter." Says Red Ribbon matter of factly, although it is a lie. No girls were sent to Vaizen.

"Then send more! Send everyone!" Precia Testarossa is furious.

"Mother, it still won't matter. We are past that point."

"Why you... you!"

The old woman angrily picks up the fake flower from the table. She is about to throw it in rage at the masked clone girl, but she stops mid-motion. She puts it down and slumps back onto the throne. She sighs and asks weakly.

"What's happened to us?"

Red Ribbon does not answer but takes out a small tool from her pocket instead. She begins to undo the bolts on her mask. Precia watches with her mouth open, blinking, trying to comprehend what this piece of shit girl is daring to do. With a clang, the mask drops onto the floor, revealing a sad face.

"Mother, a great many sisters have died."

Precia tries to cover her eyes with one hand. The other points at the Alicia clone, trembling.

"Put... it... back... on! You are not...You are not my Alicia!"

"Many sisters have died. Hundreds." The red ribbon girl slowly approaches the throne. "And thousands more, if we keep fighting."

She comes to a stop before her mother. Precia Testarossa is looking left and right, trying to avoid seeing the sad face that oh so reminds her what Alicia would have looked like had she lived. The senior Alicia clone continues.

"Mother, we don't mind dying for Alicia's sake. We love her. We love you, mother. We will die thousands times for you and Alicia!"

She leans in.

Precia Testarossa gasps, her head turned sideways but eyes glancing at the face closing in on her. The teen girl's face is crying with tears.

"But, mother, we die in the hope that someday, somehow, it will amount to something." She points at the black datapad on the small table next to the throne. "And it did!"

Precia Testarossa looks back and forth between the datapad and the face in front of her. The red ribbon girl is pleading. Screaming, the frail mother discharges attack magic, that hits her girl point-blank. To her confusion, Red Ribbon doesn't even bat an eye. The unmasked face is full of sorrow. Precia tries again but the clone girl just winces the pain off.

"It's nothing compared to what the soldiers have thrown at me."

The red ribbon girl gets on her knees.

"Mother, this everything has been about Alicia. Not about you. Not about winning the fight. It's all Alicia." She points at the datapad on the small table. "We can't win, mother. That thing is her only chance!"

Precia is taken aback. She knows the girl is right, but she was so close to reaching Infinity Library. 'Unlimited knowledge!' She pushes the girl aside and stands up. Hunched over, hands covering her head, the mother paces around the room groaning, tormented.

"Mother, please! Sisters are dying!" The red ribbon girl is shouting. At this point she is desperate.

Precia puts a hand up blocking the girl. With her head in her hands, she walks back and forth, muttering to herself. A wave of rage rushes through her body. Then disappointment, followed by indecision. For the first time in decades, she doesn't know what to do, lost.

"Mother, we have it in our hands!" The clone girl is insistent. The old woman snaps and glares at the fake Alicia. Then seeing Alicia's face, she realizes she's not lost. There is nothing to decide because everything, whatever she does and does not, is about Alicia.

"Mother, please-"

"Yes." She comes to a stop. The old mother straightens up to her full height, head held high, eyes focused with a purpose. "Yes, you are right." She faces her girl.

"Bring your sisters in. I need help with the preparation."

**#**

.

Half a dozen clone girls walk into the dimly lit backroom where Alicia is sleeping. Red Ribbon hands out memos filled with symbols and drawings prepared by her mother.

"What happened to your mask?" One of the girls asks.

"We don't need it anymore." The red ribbon girl declares. Her sisters gasp. One of them fumbles with the mask, toying with the idea. She decides to keep it on for now.

In the middle of the room, next to Alicia's container, Testarossa is going over Scaglietti's procedure while copying symbols and magic patterns for her girls to replicate.

.

Teana massages her sore face in silence. With her puffed eyes, she sees Fate squatting on a large piece of Helios wreckage, eying the gate, nervously biting her nails. Teana feels a bit sorry for Fate for what is going to happen to the sisters in Al Hazard. Her eyes wander around the Staging Dock, damp with the rain, gloomy with the depressed clone invaders. Teana recalls the last meeting she had with Dr. Scaglietti. It was when she was visiting him to receive the final draft.

"The procedure is in multiple steps." The evil genius said then and pointed at a section of the wall of text. "At this stage, things likely start to go wrong."

"Likely?" Teana asked, to which Scaglietti just shrugged with a 'Hey, don't complain to me.' expression.

"You gave me a big margin of error; I can't help it." But he was clever. He made it sure things are guaranteed to go wrong at some point.

.

Precia Testarossa draws a large magic circle. The girls are drawing symbols and lines on the walls, on the container, and on the floor, referring to the memos prepared by their mother. Red Ribbon looks up when someone taps on her shoulder. The old woman shakes her head, points at her memo, and corrects the mistake the girl has made.

Having done her part, the red ribbon girl picks up the presents she had brought and laid out in front of the container, but the mother stops her.

"It's alright. They won't affect the procedure."

Red Ribbon appreciates and puts the presents back on the floor.

.

"She's a smart one. And cautious." Teana remembers Scaglietti saying waggling his finger. "No way she's going to proceed without having planned a revert procedure for each and every step."

"Ah... those types. I know such people." Teana commented.

"And I pretty much know what those revert procedures will be, so that's where I hide my big 'Fuck You.'"

Teana sneezes, feeling chilly. Her eyes have moved onto the sky to the west where the Bureau flight mages are circling about; not really doing anything to harm the girls, but threatening, nevertheless. She wonders what's happening in Al Hazard. If Scaglietti's big 'fuck you' actually materializes, Teana is sure the news will enrage the girls here. And they sure will be mad at her.

.

Precia reviews the works done by the girls. She goes over each and every little thing very carefully. When she finds mistakes, she's not mad. She corrects them herself. And when everything is finally in order, she takes a deep breath. She gently caresses the glassy surface of Alicia's container. It's about time her little daughter wakes up.

.

Having nothing to do but wait, Teana lies on her back. The drizzly rain is annoying as heck, but she feels she deserves it.

"So, when things start to go wrong, she will revert back step by step." Scaglietti said. Teana didn't quite follow but encouraged him to go on.

"Reverting back a step won't solve the problem, but it will show a sign of improvement. But then, bang! The reality hits; She will realize continuing will trigger a catastrophe."

Teana gulped and asked what's going to happen. The doctor gave her an evil grin. He's giving Precia Testarossa a choice. Whichever she chooses, the war will end.

.

The revival procedure has started. Precia refers to the datapad, says the incantations, channeling and manipulating the magic of Al Hazard.

A large magical circle has been drawn on the floor. Along its circumference, five smaller circles are spread out surrounding the large one. Each small circle contains an element Testarossa has prepared; a flame, a floating ball of water, a small heap of earth, a twirl of wind, and one little Alicia clone.

Precia Testarossa says the incantation and processes the datastream from the flame which flickers. She processes its information and the very definition of its manifestation, and transfers to the wall where it is temporarily recorded among a section of drawings and symbols on that part of the wall; the relevant part glowing in flaming red. She repeats the process with the water, the wind, and the earth. When it's her turn, the little masked clone girl nervously fidgets.

"Don't worry. You will be fine." Says the mother in a rare kind voice, which makes the girl even more nervous.

As her mother says the magical incantation the little girl feels a tingling sensation of being watched. It feels as if the multiverse is poring over her, the fabric of space-time trying to learn who she is. What she is. What makes her her. The little masked girl shuts her eyes in fear. Soon the sensation fades away. She opens her eyes and turns around to find her section of the wall full of complex symbols and lines and shapes glowing in electric yellow.

"You've done well. You can step off now." The mother smiles at the little girl, who complies. She jogs to the corner of the room where her sisters are standing, watching. They pat her head for being brave.

"Now I need to concentrate, so be quiet."

Precia Testarossa closes her eyes and inverts the Al Hazard magic in her head. The girls gasp as the smaller circles on the circumference of the large one start moving. The circles glide over the line and enter inside the large magic circle. The elements have traveled along with their respective containers save for one vacant circle where the little clone girl previously occupied. Precia opens her eyes and carefully shifts the entire circles set across the floor such that the vacant small circle is occupied by Alicia's container. Now the real work begins.

She nods to Red Ribbon, who steps up and puts the flame out and then steps back. Precia concentrates, saying another set of magical words. The fire section of the scribblings on the wall blinks rapidly as the magical system tries to understand what is missing from the completeness of the given elements, and what should be done about it. A humming sound starts to resonate from the symbols on the wall, and the noise gets more and more intense as Testarossa filters and processes and channels Al Hazard's magic into the system. And then with a loud sound of something being ripped apart, a violet flame appears inside the small empty circle. She hears the girls gasp. The mother turns her head their ways and smiles a little.

"It's working."

She nods to Red Ribbon again. The senior clone girl removes the ball of water hovering over its assigned small circle. Precia initiates the self-learning process again, and the magic system tries, assesses, and correctly concludes it needs some water. A tiny cloud forms hovering above the assigned circle and rains tinier droplets of water onto the floor.

"Erm... mother?" Red Ribbon points at the small circle assigned to the fire. The flame has disappeared.

"It's alright." The mother assures the girl. The fire has done its part and is no longer needed.

'What a useful girl.' The mother notes. She eyes the clone girls at the corner. They would make nice sisters for Alicia, indeed. So devoted. So caring.

.

"You are evil." Teana said to Scaglietti. The evil genius had just explained to her how he's giving more than she asked for.

Teana shivers as she recalls the conversation. Her eyes once again fall onto Fate. The nervous first-ever Alicia clone is pacing around, glancing at the gate every now and then, worried sick.

Teana shakes her head. She feels sorry for having lied to her boss. She feels sorry for that girl with the ribbon on her head. She feels sorry for the innocent clones in Al Hazard. They don't know what's coming.

The mass neutralization of linker cores as proposed by Fate is never going to happen. It has never been the intention from the get-go. The true goal of Malware is something more sinister. Something that even Scaglietti thought it was too much. But then again, he himself added his own evil to the plan to make sure the war ends.

"Whatever Testarossa chooses, you get what you want. Besides... I'm already in jail for being evil." The doctor said, tapping on the final draft of the core document of Malware. Teana remembers the uncomfortable guilty feeling she had when the doctor leaned across the small table.

"Now let's talk about you, Enforcer. Are you really going to do this? Willingly and knowingly? To a little dead girl and her grieving mother?"

"The burden will be mine. Not Fate's. Not yours." Said Teana then. Before leaving Teana had to make sure.

"Now, what do you say if my boss comes asking?"

"I blame the margin of error."

.

Red Ribbon holds her breath, looking at the small mound of earth that has appeared out of thin air. She looks at the other elements. There is a miniature cloud raining water. And the tiny tornado which made the girls woo and ahh in awe. She isn't very comfortable with the missing fire but overall it really seems the magic is working as supposed to, which isn't exactly what she was told by Fate onee-chan. This puzzles her a bit; she and her sisters are supposed to fall unconscious, seriously weakened. But on the other hand, if Alicia really does wake up, it's good so. There wouldn't be the need to continue the fight.

She can tell mother is excited, too. The mother prepares for the stage which she said will take some time for the system to complete. Mother said no matter how potent Al Hazard's magic is, life is a complicated thing to figure out. It's a concept a bit too difficult for Red Ribbon to understand, but her mother just smiled a bit and assured everything is going to work out.

Precia Testarossa takes a deep breath and says the words. According to Scaglietti's report, the system took some long minutes to figure out the secret of life for a single cell organism. He suggested it could take hours, or even days for larger targets. Precia is willing to wait, but it would be very nice if there are some signs of progress. She watches the container intensely. Something. Anything. 'Give me the sign.'

A loud gasp from the girls at the corner startles her.

"Mother, look!" They point at something behind Alicia's body. Testarossa walks around and she, too, gasps. A tiny violet flame has appeared inside the container, bouncing around, and is burning the dead girl's body whenever it comes in contact. The preservative liquid inside the cylinder starts to boil, much to everyone's horror.

"Don't panic! Stay calm!" The mother tells the girls, but she herself is shaking and sweating. Clearly, the system has misjudged what needs to be done. It has summoned the missing flame instead of breathing life into Alicia. 'It's OK. I'll just revert it.' It pains her to see the flame burning her dead girl in tiny spots here and there, but she can treat the burns once the tissues are back alive. The priority is to get rid of the flame.

She deletes some symbols drawn on the floor and does a complicated reversal incantation on the fly that otherwise would have taken a full university faculty a month to calculate. Precia Testarossa is indeed a genius after all.

The reversal step results in the liquid stop boiling, which is a good sign. The bad sign is that the preservative liquid is gone; it simply disappeared. Her precious Alicia falls to the bottom of the container like a rag-doll. But the tiny flame is still there. In fact, there are now two of them, bouncing around inside the cylindrical container. The girls are now panicking, shrieking and crying.

"One more step. One more-"

She quickly reverts one more step, muttering a phrase of magical words, urgently modifying the symbols and shapes within the magical circle. In the middle of the process Testarossa abruptly stops. She gasps, eyes wild.

"Wait... Oh, no, no, no!"

Precia Testarossa once a prominent scientist has meticulously checked every little thing. Scaglietti's paper had no flaws. His theoretical framework was impenetrable. It was a work of a genius verified by an actual lab-scale experimental data. The only reason why nobody was able to upscale it to human-sized specimens was because there was no power source that met the requirement. Testarossa had her advantage because she had what was needed. And now, working the steps backward, she has realized. This whole paper was specifically designed to fail her and her only.

The paper assumed the required power input to be something universally available but just hugely amplified to an impossible degree, and Testarossa based her verification of the theory assuming the same. However, while doing the reverse calculation on the fly she caught the glimpse of the hidden trap. The magical circle and the resulting system are rigged to have the fire element, the flame, go missing at some point as long as the procedure is performed using Al Hazard's ambient magic. The parameters specific to Al Hazard were set just at the fringe of the spectrum it would have been impossible for anyone to detect. The grieving mother hyperventilates. This is too much for her to actually believe, but she has to accept the fact. Scaglietti has designed the system such that it would summon the missing fire back into reality no matter what; on Alicia's dead body.

"Why you crazy evil-" Precia curses the mad man.

And now she sees it. Scaglietti has made this because he knew exactly who will be performing this magic and where it will be performed. The Bureau knows who they are fighting against and what her goal is! What's worse is the evil monster has placed an interpreter in the magic circle. Precia's revert instructions, no matter how she twists and bends and modifies them, are set to be interpreted by the system in the only way it knows.

The flames are bouncing around like mad, scarring her precious girl, eating the dead flesh. The clone girls are wailing, not knowing what to do.

"Mother! Do something!" The red ribbon girl screams, but the old mother hesitates. She looks around the room; at the horrified girls panicking. At the now unmasked senior girl with the ribbon. At her dear Alicia flopped down on the bottom of the container. She can't breathe. She's given a choice, but no matter what she is doomed.

Red Ribbon rushes to her mother and grabs the arms.

"Mother! Do something. Alicia is burning!"

Precia chokes, hyperventilating, shaking her head sideways in refusal. Tears roll down her cheeks and drop past the quivering mouth.

"Mother!"

Eyes shut tight, the devastated mother finally gives in. With a loud and long scream of a tormented inner pain, she completes the reversal step, which triggers the system to reevaluate what is to be done. The flames inside the container disappear like magic. The dead girl is safe. For now.

The mother opens her eyes and cries like a baby. She braves herself to face her girls.

"Girls, I'm sorry." She means it.

The magical system she has manifested in the room has accepted the revert instruction, and now reassess what needs to be done so things are in order. Clearly summoning the fire inside the fifth circle is not the desirable outcome, judging by how it was rejected. The building blocks have remained the same for the system to interpret. All it needs to do is reshuffle the possibilities and figure out what is needed to be done.

Rain firestorm down on earth so Alicia is dead.

The Ziggurat's roof blows off, the room's ceiling flying off to the sky as if caught in a tornado. The girls, shrieking in fear, are knocked down to the floor. Their mother falls to her knees, begging for mercy.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

From the large magic circle, a pillar-like massive magic discharge shoots upward to the sky.

Alicia's container shatters and the dead body tumbles out onto the now exposed floor. Red Ribbon rushes to and takes her sister into her arms. With frightened eyes, she looks up at the madness that is happening above.

With an earth-shattering crack, every single cloud in the sky turns to a burning blob of red flame; raining fire down onto the inhabitants of Al Hazard. A gigantic fireball falls down onto the now exposed platform that is the top of the Ziggurat.

**#**

.

A droplet of sticky human fat falls onto Precia's face and she comes to her senses after hours of being unconscious. She finds herself underneath a heap of smoldering layers of burnt corpses on top of her. The clone girls have burnt to death shielding their mother. Terrified, Precia Testarossa digs her way out of the heap gasping for breath. Charred flesh and fat stick on her robe and won't come off no matter how hard she tries to shake them off.

The roof is gone, and the walls have crumbled. Over the knee-high rubble that once was a wall, she sees her throne still intact in the next room, which makes her even more sad.

She looks up. The rain of fire has stopped but the clouds are still of gigantic flames. In the far distant sky, she can see the fire has joined forces with the Al Hazard's mana storm and is ravaging across the burning land.

She hears someone sobbing. At the edge of the now exposed platform, Red Ribbon kneels on the floor, Alicia in her arms, barrier in full deployment. The girl's shoulder heaves as she sobs and rocks her body.

"It wasn't meant to be like this. It wasn't meant to be!" She is muttering to herself. "She lied to me!"

Red Ribbon hears the approaching footsteps from behind and turns her head. The crying girl is devastated.

"Mother, she lied to me!"

The mother walks up to the edge, taking in the scenery of the clouds of fire in the sky and the burning land of Al Hazard and the countless corpses, charred, strewn over the smoking land.

A tiny hope rises in Testarossa's mind. Thank god not all girls are dead. She spots groups of survivors wandering around the smoking field. The mother watches the senior girls trying to gather surviving sisters. Their dormitories have collapsed, and the land is on fire and the sky is burning. To make things worse there is a firestorm approaching rapidly. Precia Testarossa bites her nails, watching her girls frantically digging.

'That's right. Go underground! Come on!'

Words must have spread. She spots other groups of girls doing the same. Quickly running her eyes across the field, she estimates some tens of thousands of her clone girls are still alive. For now. She closes her eyes and quickly prays thanks to... whatever. It's been so long she last prayed she has forgotten where to direct her thanks.

The devastated woman opens her eyes again and looks the other direction. On a distant hill, the cursed gate to Vaizen is still open. She is baffled to see some girls still manning the gate.

.

"She lied to me, mother. This wasn't supposed to happen."

Red Ribbon's voice grabs Testarossa's attention. The mother shakes her head.

"It was me who did this."

"What? No, she lied-" The senior clone is confused.

"I did this." The mother insists. "I chose Alicia over you girls."

The red ribbon girl is lost and doesn't know what to say.

'Mother did this?'

Not knowing what to do, she presents Alicia. Precia takes the dead daughter in her arms and examines the damage; The little girl's flesh is badly burnt in several places. The body is still somewhat intact, but there already are signs of deterioration. Something needs to be done very quickly or there will be no more Alicia.

"I'm sorry, Alicia." The mother weeps. She faces the clone girl, too. "You, too. I'm sorry. I burnt our home."

The mother is about to fall into a complete breakdown. Red Ribbon quickly stands up, wipes her own tears and comforts her mother. Somebody has to remain sensible. She needs to be in charge.

"Mother, we need to get you out of here." She checks on Alicia's damaged body. "Alicia needs help, too. Fast."

"No. You girls can't help this-" The mother shakes her head in defeat, but Red Ribbon grabs the old woman's arms.

"Mother, the Bureau people can! They can help!"

Precia Testarossa is startled.

"What? No. They won't help me. After what I've-"

"Mother, they owe me big." The red ribbon girl starts to lead her mother out of the ruined room. "I can make them help us. I will!"

**#**

.

The Vaizen sky continues to rain drizzle down well into the late afternoon. Fate and Zafira have noticed there is a commotion at the gate. Girls have gathered there, speaking to magical ears and mouth floating out of the gate. Some girls are crying. Some are furious.

"Mother is coming with Alicia..." Zafira perks his puppy ears and relays what he hears. "Something happened back home..."

"What else?" Fate inquires.

Zafira gives up. Too many girls are talking at the same time and it's just too chaotic. But one thing is for sure.

"Something happened in Al Hazard."

"So, it worked?"

"Sounds like it."

They notice an angry mob forming at the gate. The girls are glaring at Teana. A senior clone shouts something and the girls start to approach with their weapons drawn.

"Looks like it." Zafira corrects himself. Teana sits up.

"They are coming to kill me, aren't they?"

"Yeah... Get out!"

Fate springs up. She points a hand upward and a bright yellow signal is shot into the sky.

.

Nanoha reads the signal from the sky outside the encirclement perimeter. It's in Kanji again. She lets out a cheer and gets on the comm.

"Princess, A signal from Fate. Malware worked!"

"Roger, White Devil." Reinforce answers in a calm voice. "We will have it confirmed soon."

.

Naval Intelligence's covert frigate Lighthouse springs into action.

"We dip in and look around. Nothing more, nothing less." Captain Lowran tells his crew.

The cul-de-sac path Lighthouse has been hiding inside extends the final stretch to Al Hazard. Soon a small gate opens; just large enough for Lighthouse to pass through.

"We going in, captain." An operator informs Griffith. The captain sits up in his chair and intensely watches the main display.

Cloaked, Lighthouse glides through the gate and instantly finds itself inside a gigantic cloud of searing flame.

"Holy fuck-" Griffith gasps at the sight of the world set in inferno. His sensor operator quickly zooms in the optics, and the Bridge collectively groans at the sight of countless burnt corpses littering the charred soil.

"Captain, do we deem this as... enemy neutralized?"

"Erm... yeah. Sure." The captain is at a loss what else to say. They never told him what to expect of Malware except that the enemy is supposed to be unfit for combat as the result. These clones... aren't going to fight anyone for sure.

The ship's system starts emitting alarms as the Lighthouse heats up. The Bridge crew turn their heads to their captain expectantly.

"Right. Get us the fuck out of this hell."

.

Fate flips her little golden badge that is Bardiche. The intelligent device instantly transforms into a polearm-like staff. Fate swings her magical staff, and the enraged clone girls are knocked back by an invisible force. Teana hops into Fate's arms to be carried princess-style.

"God, you really are heavy." Fate complains and staggers.

"You need some weight lifting, boss."

The Enforcers get up in the air. Fate flies as fast as she can with the added weight, but the clone girls are closing in fast.

"Grrr." Fate groans, gritting her teeth, trying to gain some altitude. She realizes it's not going to work.

"Teana?"

"Yes, boss?"

"Flap your arms a bit."

Teana is puzzled and looks at her boss's face. Fate becomes blur and Teana suddenly feels weightless for a nanosecond. The sensation of freefalling kicks in immediately.

.

A senior Alicia clone is leading thirty-some sisters chasing the escaping prisoner. She suddenly feels a chill running down her spine as a delayed reaction to... what? She has to stop, scared. 'What did just happen?' She tries to remember. For a split second, she saw the blurred image of a sister in front of her. The sister said, "Hey, stop." And... disappeared?

The senior girl is not the only one who has experienced this bizarre event. Each masked clone chasing that lying prisoner woman has had a sister appear before her, scornfully telling "Hey, stop." Some have been lightly tapped on the head with the staff... or so they think. It happened so fast and almost simultaneously to all girls, they are not sure what happened; not even sure what they saw and heard are real. They stop midair scared and wonder. Some have soiled their pants after this surreal and ghostly experience.

.

Teana is about to scream, but she again feels the weight in Fate's arms carrying her. Fate's blurred face has returned to normal and Teana no longer feels the sensation of falling. She realizes the scary experience has in fact only lasted a minuscule fraction of a second, but her senses are still catching up, lagging behind the actual event that has happened.

"What?" Teana's delayed panic sets in. "Did you just leave me up in the air all alone?"

"For a brief moment, yes." Fate doesn't deny the accusation. "But I've come back, haven't I?"

"For crying out loud, what if I fell and died?"

"I told you to flap your arms!"

"Argh!" Teana flaps her arms making Fate to wobble in the air.

She turns her head. The pursuers have stopped midair far back, puzzled and confused and scared, dripping wet stuff down their pants legs.

'Ha!' Teana scoffs. They will never know they've just experienced an extremely diluted version of a TSAB strategic asset in action.

.

"Didn't know she could use the mirage magic." Bug Boy comments from high altitude flying alongside the White Devil, ready to dive down to help the Enforcers should the need arise.

"That wasn't mirage." Nanoha corrects her Vaizen counterpart.

"What the hell do you mean?"

"Each and every one of them was Fate herself" Nanoha explains, grinning somewhat pridefully. "As I said, when she wants to go fast, she goes ridiculously fast."

.

Fate has crossed over the perimeter and enters Rapid Response's sector. She lands next to the division HQ's large command vehicle and drops Teana like a sack, much to Signum's amusement.

"God, I can't carry you anymore." Fate doubles down and wheezes.

Teana slowly gets up, moaning, massaging her back. She is offended.

"That hurt! In many ways!"

An armored carrier drifts into the division command post and comes to a screeching halt meters away from the two Enforcers. Subaru with an eye patch jumps out of the vehicle and rushes to Teana.

"Teana!" She hugs her best friend with her good arm. Subaru takes a step back and gasps at the sight of Teana's swollen face.

"What happened to your face?"

"I dropped her." Fate answers instead, still trying to catch her breath after carrying her junior officer all the way from the Dock.

"Fate-san? What's with your face?" Asks Subaru. She herself is not really in the position to ask other people about the state of their faces, but Subaru does it anyway.

"Oh! I forgot." Fate takes the head-masks off, making everyone go "Ooh~"

Signum steps in with two mugs filled with hot coffee for the Enforcers.

"Alright, Subaru. Regardless of what happened in Al Hazard, we still have a bunch of hostiles across the lawn. The fight is not over, understood?"

"Yes, madam."

Signum tells the Punchkid to return to her post, then turns to the ladies from the Office. Unfortunately for Teana, a motorbike is not available this time. Signum instead offers a personnel carrier to the Terminal, where the two Enforcers will be debriefed by the Princess.

**#**

.

The three marine landing ships settle down and open their bay doors. Disgruntled marines march out of the ships and head back to their tents, which fortunately have not been disassembled yet. The battalion CO announces they will be on standby once again. Their trip to Al Hazard is as good as canceled.

.

Hayate stands up from her desk in the hangar. She puffs her cheeks a couple of times and bobs up and down to pump up the energy. Reinforce, by her side, gives a thumbs up. Hayate presses some buttons and makes an announcement to all forces active in Vaizen.

"We've received a report Al Hazard cannot send any more reinforcement. It's time to clean up Vaizen. Pummel them down. Drive them into the sea. Pulverize anyone who dares to stand in my way."

.

The Staging Dock comes under an intense artillery barrage. The masked invaders cower in craters and behind covers, but they keep the perimeter defense up, shooting back at the Bureau soldiers trying to break in.

.

The Dock worker's town is none the better. Its outer defense has collapsed, and the clone girls have taken positions inside the houses for their final resistance. Armored vehicles move into the town to be greeted with streams of deadly magic flying out from windows and street corners. Troops dismount, taking covers. Intense house-to-house fights break out in the residential area while the flight mages rain death down onto the streets.

.

An armored vehicle stops as it comes under attack from the house it has just passed. An intense flame starts to rise from the interior and a group of soldiers climb out dragging their buddies on fire. They take cover when a hail of deadly magical javelins come their way. Another vehicle comes to a stop at a nearby corner, and its squad of soldiers dismounts. They yell across the street demanding to know where the attack is coming from. The first squad shouts and points at the house. The newly arrived vehicle starts firing at the windows, Vtoom! Vtoom! Vtoom! And the javelins stop flying out the windows. Soon two Alicia clones limp out of the house helping a bleeding third girl. A few steps on the ruined front yard, the bleeding one collapses dead. The remaining two try to run across the street, but they explode under the focused fire by the Bureau squads. But then the soldiers are shot from another house, and the second armored vehicle explodes. The soldiers rush into the house. Immediately the noise of firefight, cursing, yelling, screams of pain, rings out from the two-story residence. There is an explosion on the upper floor followed by a dead silence. Minutes later the soldiers walk out of the house, helping their wounded. A group of clone girls attacks them from the air, decimating the soldiers. The clone girls are in return wiped out by a flight of Bureau mages who dove down from above. As the flight mages fly away to another section of the town, a column of armored vehicles rolls through the street past the smoking wreckages, as if the carnage strewn across is nothing new to see. An ambulance picks up the casualties and rushes out of the town as fast as it can.

.

In the meantime, Precia Testarossa and her red ribboned clone girl are flying in the dark pathway, the latter carrying the damaged dead Alicia in her arms. The exit approaches closer and closer, shining with magical light, wobbling and pulsating. Muffled noises seep through the gate as the two approaches. Then with a woosh sound, they are through.

**#**

.

Exiting the gate, Precia Testarossa stumbles over a torn leg that has lost its owner. She is startled by an explosion some hundred meters away.

"Mother, please be careful. Stay close to me!" The red ribbon girl shouts over the noise. She looks around trying to find a safe place for her mother and Alicia. It wasn't like this when she left. This place has in the meantime become a hell. She grits her teeth. Home is burning. And our foothold in Vaizen is burning, too. 'Is there any place where we are welcomed?'

A senior clone who has been taking shelter in the nearby crater turns her head. Her eyes go wild upon seeing the mother. She stands up, arms flailing, shouting something which Testarossa can't quite make out over the noises.

"What are you saying?" The mother shouts.

"-go back! Go back!" The senior girl ups her volume. "It's dangerous-"

Other clone girls also have noticed the arrival of their mother. They are frantically shouting; "Go back!", "Take cover!"

The senior girl climbs out of her crater.

"Mother, It's not safe-"

A gigantic clawed hand the size of a truck swipes across the girl, cutting her to ribbons as Voltaire sweeps across the ground flying low. Precia Testarossa gasps. The beast ascends into the sky in search of the next prey. Another explosion not too far rains dirt and organs and limbs down on the horrified mother.

.

From the sky, the flight mages have noticed the newcomer.

"That must be Testarossa! Notify the cannon battery!" Bug Boy is ecstatic to finally have the chance to punish the leader of the invaders. He makes a wide turn, readying to dive onto the gate. He screams into the comm.

"All units, Testarossa sighted at the gate! Testarossa at the gate!"

He scans the sky to locate the White Devil. He needs her firepower, but, where is she? His search is interrupted by the comm from Rapid Response HQ. It's that Agito girl.

"Shells are in the air. Three salvos. Flight units, clear the course!"

Bug Boy leads his colleagues to a higher altitude.

.

Precia Testarossa is disoriented and in shock. She whimpers and winces at every sound of explosions. Her eyes aimlessly wander across the field; her girls are taking covers in craters and behind wreckages, occasionally hurling deadly magic out at something unseen in the distance. She murmurs not remembering teaching them such magic. She hears a whistling sound and notices the ribbon girl panicking.

"Mother! Take cover!"

"Wh-what?"

Red Ribbon quickly lays dead Alicia on the ground. She then forcefully pushes her mother down right next to Alicia. The senior girl throws herself on top of the two with her barrier fully deployed. Eyes closed in fear and in desperate hope she screams.

.

The flight mages wait for the cannon strike to end. The ground immediately before the transdimensional gate explodes as a set of magical rounds lands almost simultaneously. The resulting smoke and dust cloud block the view, but Bug Boy can still make out the bright flashes of the shells going off. Something isn't right. The magical cannon rounds seem to be exploding well above the ground. 'No matter.' He shakes his head and keeps counting the salvos.

"-two... three! Dive! Dive!" Bug Boy shouts into the comm.

The flight mages drop altitude, nosediving, throwing everything they have unto the target zone. With a deafening roar, Caro's Voltaire discharges his death rays to join in the effort.

To everyone's surprise, all the attacks bounce off to the sea.

.

On the ground, Red Ribbon's ears are ringing from the explosions. Her body aches from tensing up before the imminent death. But she's still alive. She notices something is pressing hard on her head. The clone girl opens her eyes, surprised she's still breathing. She turns her head to see a hooded person crouched on top of her, pressing down her head hard with one hand, two long ribbon tails flailing in the wind.

It's the flying devil.

The devil is looking up at the sky where the attack came from, one hand held high with the staff which has deployed an impossibly thick barrier. The flight mages floating on the other side of the barrier are watching the scene with baffled expressions.

The red ribbon girl clenches her teeth and frees herself by rolling to the side. She quickly jumps up with her scythe ready to kill, glowing and buzzing in electric yellow.

"You! Why you!"

The flying devil turns her head, facing the clone girl with a curious smile. Red Ribbon lunges forward, screaming.

Nanoha casually catches and stops the sharp edge of the scythe with the free hand and then gently extinguishes the glowing magical blade. The red ribbon girl is shocked and takes a step back. 'Did she just-' Still crouched with the barrier up, Nanoha shakes the hand, wincing a little bit.

"Not bad." She checks her hand and winces again. "Really. Not bad." She looks up and meets the girl's baffled eyes. "Are you the girl? Fate-chan's new friend?"

"Friend?" Red Ribbon's mouth quivers in rage. "Friend?!" She shoots her arm out and points at the damaged Alicia.

"Look what she's done to Alicia! Friend?!"

Nanoha doesn't say anything. She stands up and waves to the confused flight mages in the air. She waves again and the mages reluctantly lower their weapons. Only then Nanoha turns her attention to the two bodies at her feet. She observes Alicia's dead body.

"Hello, Alicia."

The red ribbon girl is at a loss what to say. She wants to kill this monster. She wants to kill that lying Fate onee-chan. She wants to-

She hears her mother groaning on the dirty ground. She quickly helps the old woman up.

Precia Testarossa shakes her head, trying to focus. Her ears are still ringing, and the fear... She shakes her head to focus. Her eyes wander across the ruined Staging Dock once again, taking in the scenery of flames and black smoke and mangled bodies and blood and bits of charred flesh and... Yes, she is the one who sent the girls to fight here in Vaizen. But this is... 'All this time, they've been fighting like this?'

Her eyes come to a stop at the woman glaring at her. 'I've seen her somewhere-'

"Dr. Testarossa. Remember me?" Nanoha asks icily. She takes in the old face. Decades of desperation and sadness have left their marks on this poor mother's face, making Nanoha feel sorry for the woman.

At first, Testarossa is confused. Then she remembers.

"I know you! I know YOU!"

This is that little girl who had almost ruined everything. 'My, she's grown up' Precia notes. She also notices the uniform and the insignia.

"You work for the Bureau!" Precia throws herself at the White Devil's feet and clings onto the uniform. "Please! My Alicia needs help! Please help her!"

Nanoha scoffs. She looks around. The battle has died down, and the clone girls have gathered around the three, puzzled and curious, but cautiously keeping their distance from the much-feared devil.

Nanoha points at Alicia.

"SHE needs help?" She moves her finger, pointing at the surrounding clone girls in general. "Of ALL your girls here, SHE needs help?" Nanoha shakes her head, disappointed, upset.

"I thought I'd do the same... I thought I understood you." Nanoha's eyes lit up with rage. Veins popping up she screams at the begging woman. "She's DEAD! They are alive!"

"Don't yell at mother, you monster!" A clone girl snaps at Nanoha. The other girls join her, yelling at the flying devil for being rude to their mother.

Nanoha looks at them with a sad expression, at a loss what to say. She feels a pang in her heart. After all this, after what has happened, these girls are still... 'Good girls.'

.

A puppy trots onto the scene, attracting everyone's attention save for Precia, who at this point is on the ground tending to Alicia's dead body, rocking back and forth, whispering into the deaf ears. Zafira stops at the feet of Red Ribbon standing by her mother.

"Dr. Testarossa, I suggest you surrender."

The girls shriek in shock. It gets worse and they are absolutely terrified as Zafira transforms back to his human form. He opts not to salute the enemy but greets with a nod instead.

"I am captain Zafira. Of Rapid Response division. Dr. Testarossa, do you wish to surrender?"

The red ribbon girl gets in the way.

"One- one condition! No. Two! Two conditions!"

Zafira looks hard at the unmasked clone girl. The vertical lines of dried-up tears and the soot on the cheeks and the trembling grey lips tell him this girl has gone through some real tough shit very recently. He looks around the other girls, but nobody is challenging Red Ribbon taking the charge. Zafira moves his eyes down. Testarossa is obviously not in the condition to discuss things; she's too occupied with the dead girl. 'OK.' Zafira snaps to attention and faces the red ribbon girl.

"I'm sorry, miss. I am not in a position to discuss the terms. What I can do for now is-" He looks around at the girls. "I can ask my people to stop killing you for the moment. But I need you to do the same."

"If you promise you stop fighting." The senior girl demands to be convinced first. She notices the flying devil shrug.

Nanoha speaks into her comm. A few seconds later, the flight mages reluctantly leave the sky. Zafira has done the same, and the incoming barrages stop. In the distance, the sound of fighting is significantly reduced. The two Bureau soldiers look at Red Ribbon expectantly.

The senior clone girl nods to her sisters. They proceed to yell into floating magical ears. Soon the sound of fighting completely dies down.

**#**

.

There is a loud cheer and a celebration is going on in the JTF HQ. Hayate is talking to Signum's hologram face floating in front of her. She has to shout over the noise.

"I'd like to have an unconditional surrender, but I'm rather curious."

"I'm curious, too." Signum agrees. "I assume the first one has something to do with Alicia-"

"Whatever happened to her? What's the other condition?"

"I don't know." Signum shrugs. She is going to find out soon anyway. "Anyway, what's our condition?"

"Precia Testarossa is to be tried for all her crimes." Says Hayate with a determined face. She won't take anything less.

Signum ends the comm, saying she has to get ready to visit the gate at the Staging Dock. Hayate turns around and locates Teana just in time as she comes back from Shamal. The doctor has patched up the beaten face as best as she can and apparently has provided a spare gym suit for the Enforcer to change into while new uniforms are being arranged from Midchilda. Hayate motions Teana to come over.

"Yo, about this Malware-"

"Yes, what about it?"

Hayate looks around to check if anyone is listening in. She eyes Fate at a corner, on the console Signum has provided previously, busy with the mountain of requests and reports and invoices that need her attention. Works have piled up while the Chief Enforcer was away, and Fate has a lot of catching up to do. Hayate turns her attention back to Teana.

"What the fuck did you and Chrono do? Naval Intelligence is refusing to share the footage from Al Hazard, and that tells me Malware is not what I'm told it is."

Hayate looks hard into the Enforcer's eyes. All she heard is that she should not worry about any reinforcement coming from Al Hazard. The vagueness of the information was suspicious as hell. Teana fidgeting and nervously smiling with an incisor missing makes it even more suspicious.

"But it did work, though, right?" Teana fidgets.

Hayate shakes her head and waves Teana off. It seems she's not going to get any useful information out of this stubborn Enforcer.

**#**

.

It's evening, just before the sunset. The sky is stubborn and still sprinkles down drizzle as it has done the whole day.

There is a commotion at the ruined main entrance of the Staging Dock facility. The girls have formed a circle around someone, and the progression slowly moves to Precia Testarossa at the gate. She sits on small wreckage, holding Alicia in her arms. Red Ribbons stands next to her, shuffling nervously.

The girls make way for the delegation; Major general Signum, burning red in unison with Agito, is accompanied by major Vita and captain Mondial. In the air, the flight mages loiter within a strike range. Signum comes to a stop a few steps before the leader of the invaders.

"Dr. Precia Testarossa?"

Testarossa does not answer. She is too occupied with Alicia in her arms. The red ribbon girl steps up and says yes. Signum greets the senior girl with a nod. Zafira has informed her that a girl with a ribbon on the head is in charge.

"I am major general Signum. I command Rapid Response Division, Capital Defense Corps." She points inland. "You've been fighting me all this time." Signum sighs and pauses a bit. Yes, it's been long weeks of fighting. Now it's time for this to end. She continues.

"I come to discuss the terms of your surrender." Signum stops Red Ribbon and adds. "But before we start, I'd like to let you know that I have no authority to accept anything."

"Then why are you here?" The senior clone is obviously frustrated.

Signum smiles, which she does rarely.

"I'm here to assess whether your demands are worth relaying to my superiors."

The red ribbon girl digests this for some moment. So, there is someone even more powerful and in a higher position than this awesome burning knight. She remembers Fate telling her of a friend named Hayate-something. 'She must be it.' Red Ribbon concludes.

"Please keep in mind, though-" Signum continues. "For you, the alternative to surrender is... to die."

"We will surrender if you promise us two things." Red Ribbon begins to negotiate the fate of her sisters. Signum looks at the girl inquisitively and gestures for her to go on. The senior girl in charge takes a deep breath and makes her first demand.

"Alicia needs help."

"She's dead." Signum states the fact.

"No!" To everyone's surprise, Precia Testarossa butts in. "She will wake up!"

"With all due respect, madam-"

"There is a way! I know!" The mother is insistent, almost hysterical. Red Ribbon has to calm the mother down.

"She needs to be..." The ribbon girl explains. "Alicia needs to stay fit for when she does wake up."

Signum sighs and examines the damaged corpse carefully with her eyes. It is a sad sight even for a hardened warrior like herself.

"I'm not sure what can be done about the damages on dead tissues... but I'm sure we can prevent further deterioration by putting her into stasis. Would that be enough?"

Signum is taken aback by Testarossa looking up, beaming with hopes. It is so sincere and honest Signum feels sorry. 'I was supposed to shred this dead girl.'

"Yes! Yes! I can heal the wounds when she's back. Just make her stay, please. I will do the rest."

Signum moves her eyes and meets those of Red Ribbon. The girl is pleading, too. The Wolkenritter general sighs again and nods. She motions for the girl to move onto the next demand.

"You will also promise you won't hurt my sisters. We need foods, places to sleep, and..." The senior Alicia clone trails off as Signum's face distorts in an inner pain.

Signum is upset. Seriously upset. She was expecting something more... something worthy of being put up as a surrender term. What this girl is demanding is... It's so ridiculously pure and innocent Signum lets out laughter in disbelief. Just what kind of a life did these girls live so they feel the need to make such demands? It is so sad. Too sad. Signum comes to her senses and realizes she's making her counterpart uncomfortable.

"Is that your other condition for the surrender?"

"Yes! I won't accept any other-"

"Young miss, the Bureau doesn't bargain those things!" Signum snaps. "Those are automatically granted to you as your fundamental rights!"

The girls murmur among themselves. The red ribbon girl is clearly taken aback.

"I... I didn't know that! Nobody told us!"

"Because you never tried to talk to us! Look where we are now because of that!"

The girls go silent. The only sound is Testarossa whispering to dead Alicia "It will be alright, they will help you, it will be alright" again and again.

Red Ribbon hangs her head low. She has delivered her demands, and it's now the Bureau's turn.

"What will stop you from killing us all?"

Signum delivers Hayate's terms. One. No more hostile actions. Two. Handing themselves over to the Bureau's discretion, to which fair and just treatment will be guaranteed. Signum takes a deep breath before delivering the third and the last demand.

"Dr. Testarossa will be tried for numerous crimes she has committed against the Bureau and its citizens."

"What does that mean? To be tried?"

Signum pauses. She turns her head to Vita and Erio by her sides, but they shrug. Signum sighs and scratches her chin, trying to come up with a simple explanation.

"It means... we will judge whether she's guilty or not. If found guilty she will be punished accordingly." Signum runs over the sentence in her head again. That should not be too hard to understand-

"But-"

"No buts. Miss, I promise you the trial will be fair with no prejudice." Signum knows this for sure. As long as Fate is in charge... "And we will keep your mother safe... from herself. She will not be doing any more bad things."

The red ribbon girl thinks for long minutes. Finally, she turns to her mother.

"I'm sorry, mother. But this is for the best."

"It's going to be alright. They will help you."

It takes a second or two for Red Ribbon to realize her mother is talking to Alicia, not her. She sighs and gently and affectionally squeezes the mother's shoulder. She turns to Signum.

"We would like to surrender."

.

The delegation is heading back towards the main entrance where the heavily armed soldiers and personnel carriers belong to Erio's company are waiting. Signum has taken note of the girls following and looking at her in... awe? She is getting somewhat uncomfortable. It doesn't help Vita keeps looking back at the transdimensional gate.

"What is it, major?" Erio asks.

"That girl. With the ribbon." Vita looks back again. "I know her."

"You know her?"

"Yeah. She almost killed me on the hill that night."

.

"That's it?" Hayate asks once more to Signum's floating face. "That really is it?"

"Yes, that's it. That's all they ask." Signum repeats her answer with a wide smile on her hologram face.

Hayate jumps up and down, throwing punches in the air. She snatches Reinforce out of the air and kisses the little fairy. Signum's holo-face is laughing, enjoying the sight of her delighted Princess.

"Congratulations, Hayate. You've won the war."


	15. 15: Look At Her

The drizzly rain has stopped. The sun has gone down. And the war is about to end. All the masked girls, numbering in thousands, are gathered in the muddy field outside the Staging Dock, surrounded by the Bureau soldiers and their armored carriers. Field medics are busy tending to the wounded as best as they can. From time to time a new set of flair magic would be shot into the sky to illuminate the area.

A personnel carrier and an ambulance come to a stop at the edge of the perimeter where the three JTF division commanders are waiting.

Shamal climbs out of the ambulance with a couple of nurses. From the back of the ambulance, they unload a stasis coffin and prime it for the self-driving mode.

From the armored personnel carrier Hayate and the two Enforcers, in their clean uniforms, emerge. The generals rush to their Princess and salute, to which Hayate salutes back with a pleasant smile. Reinforce had insisted and arranged the protocol such that the girls get a clear picture of who the real boss is.

The generals are led through the clone girls to the center as the defeated invaders shuffle away to make a path. Hayate tries to ignore the girls whispering; 'She's small!' and 'That knight works for that skinny thing?' and 'I can easily beat her up!' and such. The clone girls, however, seem to like Reinforce and Agito floating behind their respective partners.

The progression comes to a halt at the center, in front of Precia Testarossa sitting on a stool with Alicia in her arms. Consideration for her age and frail state. Red Ribbon stands by her mother and nervously watches a sergeant walk up to announce the arrival of his commanding officer.

"Madam. Miss. Joint Task Force commander lieutenant general Hayate Yagami."

Hayate steps forward.

"Dr. Testarossa." She waits for Precia's response but gets none. Hayate then nods to Red Ribbon. "Miss."

The senior Alicia clone bows politely as previously instructed by Reinforce. Hayate nods again.

"On behalf of Time Space Administration Bureau, I accept your terms of surrender. Please hand over your weapons and surrender yourselves."

Reinforce, again, had insisted on the symbolic meaning of the gesture. Red Ribbon remembers what she was told by the tiny fairy beforehand; she steps forward and hands over her staff. Hayate takes it and examines its build. It's simple and crude, unlike Fate's Bardiche, but still more than capable of carrying out whatever its master demands. Hayate hands it over to the sergeant who takes the staff away. A series of loud barking orders echo around the plain and the soldiers start to go around collecting the weapons from the girls. On Reinforce's cue, Shamal and her colleagues walk up with the stasis coffin.

"Madam, allow me to have a look at the girl, please?" Shamal addresses the dead girl's mother politely. Precia looks up and runs her eyes over Shamal. She can tell a professional when she sees one. Convinced, Testarossa hugs her dead girl for the last time, whispering into the unresponsive ears.

"It's alright, Alicia. Everything is going to be alright. I will see you again very soon."

Testarossa hands over the dead girl. Carefully laying the body on top of the stasis coffin, Shamal examines the damages done to the deteriorating body.

"Madam, I am going to take her to a special facility with proper equipment. Do a full scan to check if there is also any internal damage." She raises her head from the girl. "I'll let you have a copy of the result."

"Thank you." Precia appreciates the gesture.

Shamal nods to her staff. They carefully lower the dead body into the stasis coffin and starts setting up the preservation parameters, locking the coffin up for travel.

Watching Shamal doing her work, Hayate gestures for Fate. But Chief Enforcer is frozen in space. She doesn't notice it is now her turn.

.

Fate is stunned. 'What the heck happened to Alicia?' She wonders. Why is Alicia damage- hurt, and why is this sister with the ribbon still standing when her linker core is supposed to have gone kaput? Fate is ashamed, too. Something dreadful happened to Alicia, but she was sitting in the hangar going over the invoices and reports. And the ribbon girl is glaring at her, eyes burning with rage.

"Fate-chan?" Hayate's voice pulls Fate out of her thoughts.

Fate shakes her head to focus and steps forward. She is trembling, her feet moving in jerky steps.

"M-mother."

But Precia does not pay any attention at all. She is fully occupied with watching the medical staff doing their work. Fate tries again.

"Mother, it's me."

With a beastly roar, Red Ribbon jumps at Fate, latching onto the lapels.

"You liar! You said no one will be hurt! You lied to me!"

Fate is surprised and confused and can't react. She lets the girl shake her up roughly. A slap on the cheek sends Fate's Office issued beret flying off. The soldiers have to rush in and pull the raging clone girl off of the esteemed Chief Enforcer. Hayate quickly gets on the comm and orders furious Nanoha to stay in the air.

"I hate you!" The red ribbon girl is frothing in her mouth. Her hands claw at Fate as she is pulled away by the soldiers "You are no longer my sister! I hate you I hope you die!"

Fate is crying, her face distorted in sadness and utter confusion. The betrayed clone girl rages and curses as she is dragged away.

Teana glances at Fate's devastated face and can't take it anymore. She jogs to the soldiers and catches up with the red ribbon girl.

"She doesn't know." Teana whispers. "It was all me. She doesn't know."

Red Ribbon looks at Teana with bewildered eyes. Teana continues.

"I lied to her. She just told you my lies. She's… innocent."

"You did this?" The red ribbon girl trembles in hatred. "You did this to Alicia? To my sisters? To onee-chan and me?"

"I'm sorry."

Red Ribbon tries to gouge Teana's eyes out, but the soldiers are too strong. The wailing girl tries to kick, punch, bite, but to no avail. She spits out white froth as she curses Teana.

"I'll kill you, you monster! I'll kill you!"

Teana watches with sorrow the girl being dragged out screaming and kicking. She returns to her boss. Fate is sobbing, her chest heaving up and down rapidly as she gasps for air.

And, to Teana's surprise, Precia Testarossa has paid no attention whatsoever to all this commotion. Her eyes are fixed on Shamal and the crew.

Shamal makes the final check on the stasis coffin. Satisfied, she nods to her colleagues. They start to roll the coffin out. Testarossa cranes her neck to watch her dead daughter go.

"Mother, look at me. Please." Fate tries again with a broken voice. She almost breaks down when her mother again doesn't acknowledge her presence. Hayate puts a hand on her friend's shoulder and shakes her head, mouthing 'Just… let's get it over with.'

Fate, tears rolling down on her cheeks, bites her lips.

"Mother- Dr. Precia Testarossa, you are under arrest for destruction of Sail Force ships, for multiple murders of-"

Fate chokes. She can't continue. Teana squeezes Fate's hand and takes over.

"I'll do it, boss."

Teana walks up to and handcuffs the old woman, who offers no resistance. The mother is seemingly unaware of what's happening to her; all her attention is on the stasis coffin wading through the clone girls. Away from her. Teana's voice doesn't register to her ears.

"-for the murder of Bureau servicemen and women. For illegal handling of Lost Logia, child abuse, armed attack on Vaizen and such… and many more."

"She will be alright, won't she?" Precia asks, craning her neck to see the far away coffin better. "You will take good care of her… And the girls." She finally turns her eyes to Teana. "Promise me you will."

Teana looks away. To her boss.

"Yes, mother. I promise." Fate makes the promise. She's shaking bad Hayate has to put an arm around to hold her standing.

Teana calls for a group of soldiers standing by. They come to escort defeated Testarossa out, led by Teana in front. As they walk through the clone invaders, the girls cry, calling their mother. Precia looks around at her girls with a sorry expression as she is escorted away in slow steps.

Then she spots someone among the soldiers ahead. Her steps slow down.

From the ranks of the soldiers, with deep sadness, Alph meets the eyes fixed on her. Precia Testarossa's mouth half opens. Her steps slow down to a full stop.

Teana notices the holdup and turns around to see what's happening. She follows Precia's eyes to lieutenant Alph. Teana's heart starts to beat faster.

'Now you've realized, haven't you?'

The soldiers urge the woman to start walking again, but Teana gestures for them to let her be.

Precia's head slowly turns but stops midway. She can side-glance behind her just by the edge of her field of view, and she does so, with jittery eyes and quivering mouth. Teana looks over the old woman's figure; Fate is crying onto Hayate's shoulder, but one can still clearly see Fate is Fate.

'Look at her. Look at her! Call her name'

Teana can't take it anymore.

"Look at HER! Call her name!" Teana is shouting, her feet stomping. "Look! At! Your! Daughter!"

Precia Testarossa does not do that. After taking a deep breath she faces forward and starts walking again. Teana, disgusted, leads the progression out of the scene.

**#**

.

It's nearly midnight, but the HQ is buzzing with excitement. The Joint Task Force HQ erupts in cheers as Hayate walks into the hangar with glee on her face. The staff joyfully chants "Princess! Princess! Princess!" while the hangar's PA system plays the Imperial March. The soldiers surround their commander, clapping, patting on her back and small bottom, congratulating her on the job well done.

The flight mages sneak in, dead tired. They zombie-walk to their assigned corner in the hangar and collapse, instantly falling asleep.

Nanoha also lies down on a tiny bunk bed, mumbling "What happened to the windows?" and closes her eyes. But the eyes don't remain shut for long. They open wide.

"Vivio! What are you still doing here?"

Vivio, hunched over her mother, just smiles. Nanoha jumps up from the bed and grabs Vivio's wrist. She drags her daughter across the hangar to confront Hayate.

"Hayate!"

"Oh, erm…" Hayate tries to run away.

Nanoha jumps at Hayate, latching onto the lapels, frothing in the mouth, face red with rage.

"You made Vivio skip her classes? Are you mad?!"

Vivio tries to pull Nanoha off auntie Hayate.

"Mom, relax! Let her go." But her mother is strong, "Let. Her. Go!"

Nanoha reluctantly takes her hands off of Hayate, who runs away to a group of soldiers celebrating with beers and liquors. They grab the Princess and toss her into the air "Hooray! Hooray!"

"No! Hands off my ass!" Hayate squeaks.

Vivio tries to calm her mother down.

"Mom, I just wanted to see you come back."

Nanoha relaxes a bit, calming down. She looks at her daughter's face and her rage disappears. She smiles. They hug tight.

"It's over, mom. The war is over."

"Yes. It's over." Nanoha lets out a sigh of relief and closes her eyes. It's finally over. She and Fate can go home. Nanoha hugs Vivio tighter.

"Mom…"

"Yeah?"

"You stink."

**#**

.

A group of armed Executive Office agents is standing by in front of the dimensional gate located on the grassland middle of nowhere. Several armored vehicles are parked nearby, their windows and armor plates reflecting the late morning's bright sunlight. A high-profile convict is scheduled to arrive soon; an overnight trip all the way from Vaizen.

Right on time, the gate pulsates and Enforcer Teana Lanster stumbles out. As she does whenever she comes over to this godforsaken uninhabited world, or rather as she does whenever she makes a long-distance jump, Teana falls on all her fours and throws up. The agents don't pay much attention to this as it's nothing new to them. One agent rummages inside a small container sitting next to the gate. He pulls out a half-full bottle of mouthwash and tosses it to Teana.

As Teana swishes the liquid around in her mouth, a group of soldiers emerges from the gate, escorting handcuffed Precia Testarossa.

After exchanging formalities and documents, the soldiers hand over the prisoner to the agents.

"I thought the jail was in the orbit?" A soldier asks an agent, signing off a document.

"It is." The agent answers. "We take the orbital launchpad half an hour drive from here."

"Wait a second. Does this mean she has to make this trip every time she goes to the court?" The soldier asks.

"Exactly."

"Oh boy."

The soldiers wave goodbye and walk back into the portal, grumbling about the long journey back to their unit in Vaizen.

Teana waves to the agents and gets inside the first vehicle, riding shotgun.

.

The convoy is driving alongside a large blue lake. Teana looks out the window with a distant expression. Deep in thoughts, she squints her eyes as the lake water sparkles with reflected sun rays. A few more minutes in and Teana has made her mind up. Fair trial be damned.

"Do you carry any weapons in the car?" She asks.

"Yes, madam." The agent driving the leading vehicle answers. "Standard issue Strike Rifles. Rear compartment."

Teana looks out the window for some more minutes, her eyes dashing across the landscape.

"Pull over. Let's take a break." She gets on the comm and orders the convoy to halt. "Let's take a break."

The vehicles come to a stop. Teana gets out and stretches. The sunshine and the breeze feel good.

"Let her out, too, please."

The agents are puzzled but comply nonetheless. Precia Testarossa is led out of the extra-thick armored carrier. She silently takes in the peaceful scenery. A family of some duck-like birds has caught her eyes and she studies them with a curious expression.

The agents are milling around, wondering what this is about.

"Open up the compartment, please." Teana tells her driver.

"Madam?"

"Rear compartment. Please." Teana demands again, this time more firmly.

There is a look of realization on the agent's face. He opens the compartment at the rear of his vehicle where half a dozen Strike Rifles are neatly stowed.

"I believe this is where me and the boys go for a smoke or something?" The agent suggests.

"That'd be grand. Thank you." Teana nods with appreciation.

The agent calls his colleagues. At first, they throw a disapproving look at Teana, but the Enforcer in charge stands firm with head held high. The agents shrug and silently walk off to a far distance. They find a nice big boulder and disappear behind it, out of sight.

.

Teana patiently waits for the last of the agents to go out of sight. She then approaches the lone prisoner and releases the handcuff. Teana pulls the old woman to the leading vehicle, coming to a stop a few steps from the open rear compartment. She then takes a dozen steps away from confused Precia.

The two women remain silent for some minutes, gazing across the lake. It's Teana who breaks the silence.

"Alicia is in good hands. There is nothing for you to worry about. Boss will personally see to that." She glances at Precia. "You do know who my boss is, right?"

The old mother doesn't answer. Teana scoffs and continues.

"There are movies and books about her and her adventures. They call her the guardian of justice."

Precia remains silent. Teana goes on, getting excited as she boasts how awesome her boss is.

"Kids look up to her. They say 'Mommy, mommy, when I grow up, I'm going to be just like her'" Ha! Teana gloats. Yes, Fate is that cool. The very girl this heartless mother had abused and abandoned. And now look! Look what she has become. Teana's mood crashes down hearing the sound of Precia's slow voice.

"Her parents must be very proud. Your boss."

Teana glances at the woman. 'She knows what I'm talking about, yet…'

"Her name is Fate. Fate Testarossa. But she was adopted by the Harlaowns when she was a kid. Does the name ring any bells?"

She turns and looks hard into Precia's face, trying to find the signs of remorse. Regrets. Motherly pride, maybe. Anything. The woman is avoiding Teana's eyes.

"Sorry. No."

Teana opens her mouth but shuts up. 'You stubborn-'

"Maybe-" Precia glances sideways to Teana. "Maybe, someday, Alicia grows up to be like your boss. I hope she does."

Now Teana is baffled by this woman's stubbornness.

"Do you really believe she will wake up?"

"It's not a matter of belief, miss." Precia says firmly. "It is a given fact Alicia will come back. I just need to-"

"I won't allow it!" Teana snaps.

Precia finally turns and faces the Enforcer, her inquisitive eyes study the young woman spitting out her rage.

"Maybe someday Alicia really really does wake up. Maybe by some miracle. But I won't allow you to look forward to that day." Teana's voice breaks as she speaks. "You've caused too much pain to too many people… I can't allow you…" Teana trails off.

What she's about to do is a serious breach of her oath as an Enforcer, but she cannot allow this Testarossa woman to cast any more shadows on Fate. Because to Teana Fate is her inspiring boss, her guiding senpai, her dear friend, and her kind sister. Just by simply existing, Precia Testarossa will hurt Fate again and again as she did last night. Teana cannot allow this to continue, so she has decided to take the matters into her own hands.

"It's a punishment I'm giving you."

Precia Testarossa turns to look into the opened rear compartment of the vehicle.

"I see… you think I don't deserve it. Perhaps you are right…" She sighs. "Indeed, you are right, miss Enforcer."

"After what you've done…" Teana shakes her head. "But Alicia will be properly taken care of. That I promise."

"Thank you. I am grateful." Precia heads towards the vehicle's rear. "Let us get it over with."

But Teana stops her.

"Either this or-"

Precia stops and turns around. Teana takes a deep breath.

"Or… you spend the rest of your life in prison. You will be fed, clothed, and cared for. And from time to time, your daughter will come to visit you. And you will look forward to the day she comes." Teana starts to pace around, almost rambling to herself.

"She will talk about how her day went. You will say 'Oh, really?' and 'Wow, that's nice' and 'Glad you came to tell me'…"

Precia silently watches the Enforcer painting a warm pink alternative available for the old mother to take. Teana is making an offer for one last time. But what will be the price?

"Maybe someday she brings her kid, too. And you will say 'How is your school?' and 'Oh my you've grown so much' and stuff." Teana then pauses and thinks about what she's said for a second. Vivio isn't exactly a kid… well, who cares? She continues. Teana's face brightens up as if she is the one in the prison cell gloating about her daughter.

"And in your prison cell, you will watch her on the news and read in the newspapers. You will tell the guards and fellow inmates 'That's my girl' and-"

"Miss, my daughter is Alicia and she is dead!"

"Why are you so-" Teana's bright rambling stops and she sharply turns to face the old woman, only to find Precia in tears.

"Otherwise… otherwise, after all these years-" Testarossa is crying. "Alicia and all these years, and the girls. And the girls!" She is on the verge of breaking down. "I can't turn them into nothing now!"

Teana rages. She stomps on the ground, kicking dust.

"All you have to do is tell me your girl's name! Say it! Say it, goddamn it!"

It is impossible for Precia Testarossa. She understands what this Enforcer is trying to do for the sake of her boss. To Precia, however, acknowledging that girl would mean admitting all her years in Al Hazard, her struggle, and her girls… it would mean they have been in vain. All that would turn to nothing, meaningless, abandoned. Reduced to the level of unnecessary redundancy. Yes, she's chosen Alicia over them and burned them down herself, but she has finally found a place for them in her heart and holds them dear in her soul, next to Alicia. Alicia and the girls. Irreplaceable until her very last moment. Not even for Fate.

Precia Testarossa has calmed herself down. She takes a deep breath and smiles faintly.

"Alicia is my one and only girl. Sorry, miss, I do not know whom you are talking about."

Teana gasps. Her anger and rage die down. 'This poor woman's mad stubbornness is just so…' Teana, too, takes a deep breath. If Testarossa, even after all that rosy prospects Teana has offered, chooses this over reconciliation with Fate, then Teana has no other choice but to respect and appreciate the decision. Precia has opted to give Fate a closure herself by exiting the stage. Teana turns her back on the old mother.

"Is that so?" Teana asks one last time.

"It is so."

The older woman takes a few more steps towards the open compartment and stops right at it. She eyes the rifles stowed within. She doesn't actually know how to use them, but that won't matter. All she has to do now is- 'Ah, wait. I have to let her know.'

"But about your boss-" Says Precia her last words. "I'm sure her mother would be really proud and happy. Of what she's become."

She reaches for a rifle.

.

The agents have silently sat in the boulder's shadow. They all know what Teana is up to but aren't going to interfere. As far as they are concerned, if none other than Lanster herself is going so far as to do this… well, maybe it's for the best.

They are startled by the sound of Teana's dual pistols going off. They sit around for a minute or so more, then one by one stand up.

When the agents reach the scene, they find Teana on the ground, sitting next to dead Precia Testarossa; head buried in knees, sobbing.

**#**

.

A funeral is in progress in the public cemetery park in Midchilda. The sky has decided it will rain hard for the occasion, making the afternoon appropriately dark and gray.

The service is attended by only a handful of attendees, mostly the close associates of Fate T. Harlaown, but the area is packed with the media people. The cameras are mainly focused on weeping Red Ribbon standing next to vacant faced Fate, who in turn is leaning onto solemn Nanoha. Vivio in a simple black dress stands there glaring at the media people, disgusted.

.

Wet from the rain, Teana gets under a tree not far from the service. Hayate is leaning onto the trunk, chain-smoking. Teana removes her beret and shakes the water off.

"I don't believe you of all people fucked it up." Hayate comments with a loaded tone.

"It's all in the report, Hayate. I messed it up."

Teana points at the cigarette in Hayate's hand then to herself. Hayate checks her pouch; there is only one left.

"Sorry, it's the last one." Hayate pockets the pouch and stares into the distance, thinking.

"Yeah? So?"

"Huh?" Hayate pays attention again. She realizes Teana is still waiting for a cigarette. "Hell, no. I'm not giving you my last one."

Teana just sighs and leans on to the trunk opposite side of Hayate. They stand there in silence for some minutes, counting the rain droplets.

"Does she believe you?" Asks Hayate, breaking the silence.

"Nah~. But for some reason, she's not mad at me. I don't really understand-"

"Maybe she knows you did it for her sake. Sad. But not mad." Hayate postulates and finishes her smoke.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Teana insists.

.

The service ends. Fate drags the red-eyed clone sister to the two women under the tree. Hayate gives a sincere hug to her dear friend.

Teana can feel the menace in Red Ribbon's demeanor. Fate, for some reason, has dressed the clone girl in a black suit, not a dress. The short blond hair is combed nicely, with a black ribbon for the occasion, and pale face washed clean; overall whole lot presentable than before, except for the healing scars on cheekbones where the bolts had been drilled. The girl is ready to jump and Teana tenses up in response, readying for a fight. But Fate bonks the girl's head and the tension evaporates.

"Enforcer Lanster, I have an assignment for you." Says Chief Enforcer.

Teana snaps to attention.

"Here's your trainee." Fate points at her young sister. "Consider it as your punishment."

"What?!"

The clone sister is equally shocked.

"No! Please, onee-chan. Anyone but her!"

Fate waves off the protests. She signed the paperwork last evening and it is already settled.

"She's all yours as of today, Teana."

"But, boss! I can't-"

Fate ignores Teana's protest and turns to face her recently acquired sister. She holds the girl by shoulders and looks straight into the eyes.

"Teana's my best Enforcer I can't afford to lose. So, behave, OK? No biting her head off, OK? Promise?"

"OK, onee-chan." The ribbon girl reluctantly agrees.

Hayate has been watching the event unfold with amusement. She takes out her last cigarette and lights it. 'Welp, this is going to be interesting.'

**#**

.

Inspector Acous is sweating, clearly uncomfortable. It's been weeks since the Management has launched a fact-finding mission and put him in charge, but there was so little for him to work with.

All he had was a few-second long footage of Al Hazard burning and less than ideal testimonies from the few people who were involved.

The investigation task force went over the footage taken by Lighthouse frame by frame and has concluded the obvious; Al Hazard is an inferno. The mission was to find out why.

Chief Enforcer blames herself. She insists she's responsible because she gave the order to neutralize the linker cores in Al Hazard en masse, which led to the disaster. Verossa, of course, has written Fate off as innocent. She can't be guilty for having an idea.

Dr. Scaglietti, the one responsible for so-called Malware, has written a lengthy statement with scientific back data; essentially blaming it on the accuracy of the data provided by Executive Office. According to him, Chief Enforcer's idea should have worked, but there must have been a big discrepancy between the actual Al Hazard magic and the estimation extracted by the Office's lab. Unfortunately for Verossa Acous, Scaglietti had handed over all his work to Enforcer Lanster, who in her haste didn't have the thought to make a backup copy before packaging everything and shipping to Al Hazard.

Inspector Acous did manage to secure copies of the auxiliary documents the Enforcers and the Agents forged, but they were more to make the actual Malware look a legitimate Caledfwlch research document and weren't very useful in determining the actual nature of the core paper. The only copy of Malware had been shipped to Al Hazard and was most likely destroyed during the disaster.

.

"-and Dr. Scaglietti admitted he had indeed not foreseen the disastrous event that unfolded in Al Hazard." Says Verossa to the audience in the Sail Force HQ's conference room. He is presenting his findings to a special committee. He wonders why they are doing this in the Sail Force HQ, though.

"So, basically… it was a freak accident due to some errors in our data?"

The Bureau Security Adviser comments, sighing. The room murmurs in amusement.

"Al Hazard is indeed an unknown, sir. Even our best estimation is not as accurate as we hope." Verossa answers.

The Bureau Security Adviser scoffs. He can't help but laugh at the absurdity that has come his way.

"Rather a convenient excuse for a genocide that 'I' unknowingly convinced the Management to sign and authorize, don't you think?"

.

Lindy Harlaown sits next to the Security Adviser. She's been silent, but her eyes are sharp, fixed on her son across the conference table. Chrono has taken notice of his mother's intense stare and is trying his best to ignore it.

.

"Sir, All the evidence suggests a genocide definitely was not our intention." Verossa tries to set the record straight. With hindsight, it's always easy to point fingers at some people and blame them for things that didn't go as planned, but that never is a healthy thing. But, of course, he doesn't know he and his team have in fact failed to find the actual facts.

Leaning back on his seat, Chrono internally sighs in relief, trying to appear as innocent as possible. He and Teana wanted Alicia destroyed. Scaglietti foresaw Testarossa would try to stop Alicia's destruction, and thus added his own little touch. As long as the three keep their mouths shut, no one will learn the truth.

"It doesn't help we have a conflicting testimony from the sole survivor and witness." Verossa informs the room. The girl has been adamant with her version of what happened in Al Hazard. Inspector Acous continues. "She claims Precia Testarossa did, and admitted, setting the world ablaze."

"And how does that fit into the big picture?" The Security Adviser asks.

"We are working on it, sir. Will submit a comprehensive report in the coming days."

"You do that." The Adviser looks around the room. He leans onto the table from his seat. "Alright, people. What's important is the fact that we have a humanitarian disaster on the other side of the gate."

Although debatable, the Bureau has maintained its stance that the Alicia clones are to be deemed citizens. That makes the situation in Al Hazard a catastrophe that needs immediate action. The problem is the public isn't very fond of the idea of spending money and resources on the people who just recently caused havoc in Vaizen. Besides, the matter of hostility still remains.

"I'm ready to ship Disaster Recovery-" Lindy chimes in. "-But I can't send them without knowing whether the surviving inhabitants are hostile or not."

"Let's hear from the lady. I want to hear what happened. I want to hear what she thinks." The Bureau Security Adviser suggests.

.

A soldier leads an Alicia clone into the room. She is wearing the gray-black Executive Office uniform spotting the trainee rank. The girl removes her beret to reveal a red polka dot ribbon neatly clipped onto her bob cut blond hair. She is further led to the front of the room.

The Security Adviser welcomes the clone girl.

"Miss, first of all, let me assure you we have no desire to further hostile actions into your homeworld. We are trying to help."

Red Ribbon nods in appreciation. She tries to hide it but is obviously nervous. Within days after the surrender, she learned Fate onee-chan is an extremely important person within the Bureau, so important she can just pull the girl out of the prisoner camp with simple grunts and gestures. And then she learned that Hayate-something woman is way up there in the ranks, too. So, when she learned she was called in to give her version of the story to the Bureau Security Adviser and such people she asked Teana who these people are. When Teana explained these people are higher ranked than even Fate and Hayate-something, the girl panicked.

"Focus on the bald head, and you will be fine." Red Ribbon recalls Teana's advise and intensely stares at the brightly shining scalp. It calms her down somewhat.

"Young miss, excuse me for asking, but how old are you? Could you tell us your name?" The Adviser inquires.

"The doctors told me I am nineteen, mister. I haven't picked a name yet…"

"OK. Excellent. Not a minor." The old man smiles. Had this girl been a minor her legal guardian would have to be brought in to be present. And that would mean yanking Chief Enforcer Harlaown out from her busy schedule. This made things simpler.

"I understand you have recently enrolled in the Enforcer academy program?"

"Yes, mister." The girl fidgets with her uniform. She had initially hoped to join the Ground Armament Service and eventually work for the knight general Signum, but Fate onee-chan up and went and planted her into the Enforcer program. Turns out, once she mastered reading and writing, she started to actually like being in the Office… except for that Teana bitch breathing down on her neck every day.

The Bureau Security Adviser is impressed. People generally start from the Agent training. Chief Enforcer handpicking this young lady and putting her in the Enforcer program is telling a lot. Something has convinced the head of the law enforcement that this girl has a bright future in the Office.

"I trust Chief Enforcer's judgment, and I, too, look forward to seeing you wearing the badge. Best of luck to you, miss." The man says in honest and moves on to the main topic.

"Now we understand it's painful to recall, but we need you to tell us what exactly happened in your homeworld. What happened? How bad is it?"

**#**

.

Few more weeks have passed, and the fact-finding task force has released their final report. The initial reaction by the public is… confused. People are baffled, to say the least. 'A series of unfortunate events?'

.

"-so… the Bureau commissioned Dr. Scaglietti to neutralize the linker cores in Al Hazard, and he 'accidentally' set Alicia on fire-" The gray-haired news anchorwoman tries to summarize. Her returning guest, the bald former Bureau Security Adviser, nods.

"That's right. Mind you though, destroying Alicia Testarossa was the objective of the backup plan which was to raid Al Hazard." The old man shrugs. "So, it kinda worked out itself."

"Or rather… it was working out itself… until Precia Testarossa, in her desperate attempt to save her DEAD daughter, sacrificed Al Hazard and the girls. Yes?"

"Well, OK, you are right. But that made it impossible for her to send reinforcement to Vaizen, which in turn relieved us from having to resort to the backup plan."

The anchorwoman is baffled.

"I'm sorry, it's so…" How does saving her dead girl lead to burning down her own homeworld?

"It's Al Hazard." The man shrugs again. "Magic is weird there… so I'm told."

The news anchor shakes her head.

"So, who do we hold responsible for this disaster?"

"Well, let's see…" The former Security Adviser thinks out aloud. Scaglietti is already in jail under a life sentence. Testarossa is dead… "But what could we hold them responsible for? Manslaughter? Negligence?" He shrugs. He does not add the disturbing question that's been lingering in his mind. 'Do people even care?'

.

Teana turns off the news display and gets back to her noodle soup. Thanks to the missing incisor every meal is a challenge for Teana. Soup is a bit easier for her to handle.

"Hey, I was watching!" Red Ribbon raises her head from her noodle soup but goes back to eating without adding more complaints. The two are having a modest dinner at the small kitchen table in Teana's apartment studio. Fate not only entrusted this brat to Teana for the training, but for everything.

"Nanoha isn't very comfortable with my clone in the house." Fate said when dropping the girl off at Teana's place. Apparently, both Nanoha and Red Ribbon ended up in awkward terms after Nanoha, for multiple times, mistakenly groped the wrong bottom. During the few days Red Ribbon stayed at the Takamachi residence, she discovered the flying devil wasn't as scary as she looked, but still a bit peculiar woman to say the least. Besides, Red Ribbon felt very awkward around Vivio, who's supposed to be her niece. Vivio was kind and friendly, but the clone girl simply could not relate to the young lady who grew up in such a dream-like environment.

And so, the clone girl settled at Teana's and the two nemeses bickered and bitched living together.

.

Teana puts her spoon down and silently studies the girl in front of her. The trainee Enforcer notices the gaze and looks up.

"What?"

"I'm curious." Teana leans in, setting her dish aside. "Why haven't you gone tell on me? To Fate 'onee-chan'?"

Red Ribbon throws her spoon down onto the table and leans back in her chair, sighing and glaring at Teana. Yes, she could just go and tell Fate what really happened. What the true nature of that Malware thing was. What this Teana bitch intended to do to Alicia. She could have told everything. But she hasn't. There is no point in telling Fate onee-chan. It would only upset her and hurt her even more. Besides, that would be suggesting Fate onee-chan punish this Teana bitch, and Red Ribbon cannot accept that. It has to be her who punishes Teana… at some point eventually, preferably involving a gruesome death.

"So? Why haven't you?" Teana presses on.

"So you owe me big." The ribbon girl scoffs and goes back to her noodle soup.

Smiling Teana observes the younger girl for a moment. She then pulls out her personal datapad. Now to the topic she's been meaning to address for some days.

"You know you are using my spare datapad? And it's synced to my this one?"

"Yes. So?"

"Stop downloading penis photos. You are ruining my bike gallery."


	16. 16: They Call Me the Devil

Hayate wakes up to the midday noon sun shining on her eyes through the bedroom windows. She yawns and pushes the dakimakura aside. Smacking her lips and scratching her belly she climbs out of her queen-size canopy bed and looks herself in the mirror. Her hair is a big mess and the face is all dry and the eyes are dead, but all this is OK because it's the weekend.

For months Hayate has been busy dealing with the aftermath of the war. Pulling troops and equipment out of the warzone took more time and administrative efforts than rushing them to the fight.

Going over the combat reports and deciding who should be rewarded for what took immense resources and numerous interviews with unit leaders and such. Writing letters to the families of the killed soldiers was grueling and tear-inducing, but thankfully it was mostly handled by the staff.

The Bureau still hasn't released her of the JTF command position, which resulted in her being dragged into a free for all battle of who pays for what. And then half a dozen NGOs have suddenly decided it's now a good time to accuse the now-dissolved Martial Law command of violation of civil rights, and Hayate and her lawyers had to go through numerous hearings and court sessions to defend her actions in Vaizen. In the end, she got away clean, but Hayate was fed up by this point.

And then there were the clone invaders to be taken care of, which was a whole another can of worms for everyone involved.

And now, finally, after many exhausting months of crashing on her office sofa, Hayate was able to come home and enjoy the luxury of oversleeping into noon.

.

Hayate walks down the stairs in her silk Hello Kitty pajamas, yawning and stretching. She grabs a mug of coffee from the unnecessarily large kitchen and goes to the equally unnecessarily large living room filled with luxurious furniture and gadgets. Having the family entirely composed of professional soldiers means a lot of combined monthly income, so much that they don't know what to do with the money. So, the Yagamis bought a large villa and spent a good amount on various things and still have more than enough in their bank accounts that keep growing.

The Wolkenritters are already up, enjoying their well-deserved peace and rest. Signum, all mature and serious, sits on the long sofa and reads the newspaper holo-display spread on her lap. Vita sits cross-legged on the carpeted floor, watching a cartoon show on broadcast with a large tub of ice-cream in her hands. Typical peacetime weekend for the Yagami household, except... 'What are they doing?'

Reinforce and Agito are on the coffee table, furiously writing into their datapads, occasionally stopping to engage in a heated discussion. They have been having such sessions for some weeks, much to Hayate's curiosity.

"I've been meaning to ask you guys for some time. What are two doing?"

"Finally, you ask." Agito looks up from her work. "We are co-authing a paper."

"We are submitting to the Officer's Quarterly Journal." Reinforce adds more context to the information.

Signum puts away her newspaper, interested.

"What's the topic?"

Agito's face lights up.

"Remember the paper Hayate wrote when she proposed Rapid Response?"

"Yeah..." Hayate remembers. "What about it?"

"We are revisiting the logistics and the administrative aspects of that." Reinforce explains, making hand motions as if dissecting something in the air. A clear indication of what they are doing to Hayate's paper. "The initial 'rapid response' phase to be specific. We are comparing them against the real case."

Signum sits up, very interested.

"Now, I'm interested. Can I have a look?"

"Hold up, hold up. Wait a second." Hayate puts her hands up. "You guys are using the deployment in Vaizen as a case study to pick MY paper apart?"

"Yeah!" Agito beams a bright smile, excited. "I think this can get me a course slot at the Academy. Then you all can call me Professor."

Hayate wants to protest but stops seeing the tiny hopeful face. She eyes the wall decorated with the certificates and diplomas the Yagami household has accrued. Being high ranking officers in the military comes with higher education. Hayate herself, for example, has enough academic background equivalent to a brain surgeon. Welp, Shamal has an actual certificate that allows her to perform brain surgeries... that should be somewhere on the wall among Signum's and Reinforce's and Agito's and Vita's and the rest of Shamal's and Hayate her own and... Hayate shrugs. OK, it's just a paper for the Journal, and Agito has been envious of Reinforce lecturing part-time at the Academy, so...

Hayate's thought is interrupted by Shamal and Zafira returning from a walk.

"Vita, you have a mail." Shamal checks the envelope to be sure before handing it over. "From the Disciplinary Committee. What have you done?"

All eyes turn to Vita, who's very confused. Signum gets up and walks over to Vita.

"Disciplinary-? I'm your superior. Why haven't I heard anything?"

Vita, confused, opens the letter.

"I haven't done anything..." She reads out aloud as she scans the summon.

"I'm being summoned for... what the hell? Inappropriate attire? Misleading the public an officer might actually be a school kid?" Vita raises her head up and looks around the living room with wild eyes. She fails to notice Hayate inching away for the door. Vita continues with the letter from the Disciplinary Committee.

"I provoke perverted sexual fantasies? Oh, wait, it says evidence is attached..."

Vita turns over the page.

On the next page of the summon is a large printed photo of Hayate proudly presenting a huge display of embarrassed Vita in schoolgirl uniform to the gathered media reporters.

.

In pajamas and barefooted, Hayate runs out of the house onto the peaceful afternoon sidewalk. Enraged Vita soon rolls out of the house in hot pursuit. A group of Strategic Arms escort people appears out of thin air and runs after the two.

**#**

.

Teana rides through the sunny downtown on a vintage motorbike with an empty sidecar. She comes to a stop in front of a park where Subaru, in her casual clothing, is waiting with a mean-looking eyepatch on her lost eye.

"Yo. Let's go. Here's the map." Subaru hands over a map data and gets into the sidecar, putting on one of the two helmets inside.

"Who's this for?"

"I'm picking up that brat later. You can come along. Where are we going anyway?" Teana asks, entering the destination coordinate into her navigation.

"We are going eye shopping." Subaru grins. She stretches her arms to feel the wind as Teana speeds up the bike. This feels good.

"Doesn't the Armed Service take care of that for free?" Asks Teana, confused. "I'm sure it's included in your health package-"

"Yeah. Yeah. But I'm way down on the waiting list. Internal organs first. Limbs second." Subaru complains. It will be years before her turn comes. "So, I'm going to the private sector."

Subaru, of course, has the option to go to her dad, but she doesn't want to bother him with such a menial job as getting her a new eye. Besides, dad probably doesn't have what Subaru wants.

"Isn't that expensive though?" Asks Teana.

Subaru counts with her fingers as she lists all the extra money she's received.

"I got wartime service bonus. Overtime bonus. Victory bonus. Medal of Valor reward. Permanent injury compensation-"

"Perma-injury compensation?" Teana raises her voice. She almost loses control of her bike but quickly regains the balance. "But you are a cyborg!"

"Hey, no discrimination, OK?"

"Grrr." Teana grits her teeth. So that's where my tax money goes, she thinks to herself.

"What about you?" Subaru pokes Teana's cheek to annoy her friend. "You got your teeth sorted out?" She chuckles as Teana's expression instantly changes.

"No! Boss is so stubborn and still hasn't signed the paper." Teana laments, upset at the unjust treatment. "She thinks because it was an unapproved mission the Office shouldn't pay for it."

"And you lived all these months waiting for that money? With missing teeth?" Subaru shakes her head. 'Seriously...' She can't tell who's the worse penny-pincher of the two Enforcers.

They come to a stop at a very shady looking shop with no signs or posters.

"I don't know about this one, Subaru." Teana comments, looking for a suitable parking place. There is none.

"I'll go have a look at the eyes. You park somewhere."

Subaru enters the shop. Teana goes around looking for a place to park her bike.

.

"That would be two million-"

The shopkeeper is saying to Subaru when Teana enters the shop. His eyes go wide at the sight of the Executive Office uniform. The lady Enforcer slowly walks towards the counter, browsing the products displayed in the shop.

"Found anything good?" Teana asks across the shop floor.

"Yeah. found something cool." Subaru answers and turns to the shopkeeper. "So, what's the price again? Including installation?"

The shopkeeper clears his throat.

"Is the Enforcer... your friend?"

"Teana? Oh yes. She's my best friend."

"Teana Lanster the shinbreaker?"

"Shinbreaker?" Teana walks up to the counter. "That's new."

Subaru waves her hand before the man's face.

"Mister? The price?"

"Oh, sorry, miss." The shopkeeper shakes his head to focus and smiles. "That would be twenty thousand including installation."

Teana leans over the counter, surprised, looking at the collection of eyes the man has brought out.

"Wow, that's a whole lot cheaper than I thought."

"Told you not everyone in private sectors is a rip-off." Subaru is smug.

"Miss Enforcer?" The shopkeeper addresses Teana. He takes out a flat box from a drawer and carefully lays it down on the counter. "I've noticed you are missing an incisor... would you allow me to show you our selection?" He opens the lid and there are rows of teeth on display.

Teana leans in closer to inspect the products, interested.

"Do you have molars, too?"

.

Teana stops her bike in front of the Executive Office's library located among training facilities and gyms. Red Ribbon, in simple t-shirts and jeans, approaches with a grumpy face. She has her hands full carrying a couple of thick books in her chest. The trainee Enforcer notices Subaru in the sidecar.

"Who's this- whoa!"

Startled, Red Ribbon takes a step back. Subaru grins and passes the spare helmet. She has a snake's eye for her left eye, greenish iris widening as the golden vertical pupil focuses on the clone girl.

"She's a friend of mine." Teana introduces Subaru. "We are just coming from getting her that badass new eye. Pretty cool, eh?"

"Hello, I'm Subaru. You must be the prodigy girl everyone is talking about." Subaru greets with a smile and the two ladies shake their hands.

"She still hasn't picked her name yet, so I just call her 'Hey you'." Says Teana getting the bike ready to go. "Hey, you, hop on behind me."

Subaru offers to take the books for her and so Red Ribbon grumpily gets on the bike, hugging Teana from behind. They drive off.

"Why Executive Office, though? How about you join the Ground Armament?" Subaru tries to get Red Ribbon to ditch the Office. "Look at me, it's way more cool. Come sign up for Punchkid."

"Don't you start, Subaru. She's got a future in the Office." Teana elbows Subaru's helmet.

"Aw~" Subaru laments. "I also want my own Erio!"

Teana elbows her friend's helmet again, this time harder.

.

Subaru notices the teen girl is obviously scared riding on the back. Red Ribbon is holding onto Teana, hugging quite tightly in the manner that could easily be mistaken as intimacy. Teana doesn't seem to mind the hands clutching her boobs.

"You two good friends?" Subaru asks.

"No! No friend." The girl snaps. She slaps the back of Teana's helmet. "Just because I'm holding onto you now don't think we are friends. I'm going to kill you. I'll really really kill you."

Teana glances at the girl behind her reflected on the side mirror.

"Yeah, you do that. Some day. But not today, please. I'm on duty this evening."

Reflected on the side mirror, Red Ribbon sees her nemesis and flatmate and sensei smiling. The recently installed diamond incisor sparkles brightly.

**#**

.

In Vaizen, not far from the town that previously was the home of the Staging Dockworkers, a newly built villa overlooks the plain from a small mound.

Fate is sitting on the sofa in the living room, sipping a freshly brewed cup of coffee. Across the coffee table sits Dr. Scaglietti, visibly uncomfortable with this particular guest. The Numbers girls are milling around in the kitchen, eavesdropping.

"So how is the new job?" Fate asks casually.

A brief moment of irritation passes over Scaglietti's face.

"Great. Nobody told me I'd be teaching kids, but hey, it's all great. Everything is fine." He means sarcastically.

Fate scoffs condescendingly.

"One could say... you reap what you sow?"

Scaglietti sighs in defeat.

"To be honest, I was expecting you to storm into my cell ready to kill me." He carefully watches the Enforcer across the table. "Why haven't you?"

"Oh no, I wouldn't do that. It was us who gave you inaccurate data to work with. Can't be mad at you for what happened."

Fate stands up and walks across the living room to a large window. She looks out to the field.

"In fact, I'm rather sorry to have ingrained the horrible image of kids burning to death into your conscience." Fate concludes.

Scaglietti throws his hands in defeat. Yes, for some reason Chief Enforcer still doesn't know what really happened in Al Hazard. Enforcer Lanster had asked him to burn down Alicia. He upped the evil and burnt the whole world. No way is he going to let people learn this little secret between him and Lanster. Especially not Chief Enforcer Harlaown. That though doesn't mean he has no guilty feelings. When Inspector Acous came to his cell and showed the footage Scaglietti almost threw up. He's been having nightmares ever since.

He stands up and joins Fate by the window.

"Your passive-aggressive questioning of my conscience is noted but let me tell you this. Yes, I do feel bad. I'm having nightmares."

He looks out the window. The town is being rebuilt and fenced, creating jobs for Vaizen people. When the Dockworkers returned and saw their destroyed homes, they opted for the Bureau provided compensation; a new residential area slight north of the Staging Dock. The Dock itself is undergoing a complete rebuilding, which keeps the workers fairly busy. In the meantime, the old Dock worker's town is being rebuilt and converted for a new purpose.

"It doesn't help that you built the POW camp right in my backyard." Scaglietti points at the fenced town. "Having to see them every day... in the classroom... full of the same faces..." He shivers. "It's too much."

Fate turns to face him, this time a bit sympathetic.

"As I said. You reap what you sow."

.

Dr. Scaglietti and the Numbers girls are in a classroom in the small elementary school that has miraculously survived the war. One of the many classes Scaglietti is responsible for is sitting in their small chairs. This particular class is of kids, a group of little clone girls aged between eight to twelve. The once imprisoned evil doctor and his accomplices teach the clone girls how to read and write. They read books aloud. The Numbers sing songs with the little kids. Scaglietti tries to teach a bit of math, too, but that doesn't quite work out.

On the back wall of the classroom, the Numbers have pinned the crayon drawings by the kids. Most of the drawings depict a sword yielding female figure engulfed in fierce red flame, captioned with "Kool Lady", "Fire Nait" and such. Few drawings are of a gray-clad witch in the air, with long fangs and slit eyes and demonic expression.

.

The Numbers are wrapping up the class, and Scaglietti looks out the windows. A site manager working for rebuilding the town is taking a group of clone girls on a tour of a nearby construction site; a two-story house that is being rebuilt from the ground up. The doctor smiles at the sight of white helmets bobbing up and down.

Many of the girls in the eligible age group have expressed their interest in joining the Ground Armament Service, all hoping to serve one major general Signum at some point in the future. That is not very surprising given how they idolize the Wolkenritter general.

Unexpectedly though a surprising number of clone girls have decided they want to learn the carpentry. About the equal number have expressed their interest in farming. When asked why the girls simply shrugged and said they want to be useful for the sisters back home. This endearing story has gathered positive media attention and somewhat helps the Bureau's propaganda efforts in justifying resources spent on these prisoners of war.

.

As the class ends the girls pack up. Scaglietti, too, gets ready for the next class when one little girl comes over to talk to him. She presents a small paper on which she has written: "Than q Doktor."

"Oh~ how nice. I thank YOU." Scaglietti smiles and gladly accepts the note.

"Doctor, when will you go to our homeworld?" The little kid asks.

"I'm sorry?"

"I want my sisters there learn to read, too."

Jail Scaglietti looks hard at the small face in front of him. My, she really is an exact copy of Chief Enforcer... a kid version of her to be exact. And the same good kind heart, too. He swallows hard. The defeated invaders are not told of what happened in Al Hazard. A catastrophe Scaglietti himself is partly responsible for.

The little girl produces a small picture book.

"This is my favorite book. I want them read it too."

Dr. Scaglietti breaks down. He falls onto his knees, hugging the little girl tight, wailing.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

**#**

.

A few kilometers west of Scaglietti's classroom, Vaizen Wing's group leader Bug Boy is walking slowly on the slope of the crater that once was the battle-torn high hill. Dressed casually with hiking boots on, he is hunched over, combing the grass dirt with optics magic inch by inch, in search of something.

He decides to take a break and sits down. Nature has taken its course and the greenery has returned to the scene that saw hundreds of people die and its soil upturned by countless explosions. There is some water at the bottom of the crater. Just a large pond at this stage, but the scientists are eagerly anticipating the crater to turn into a full-scale lake in three or four generations later, with the accompanying ecosystem and such.

A woman and a kid boy call out to him from the edge of the crater. Bug Boy waves them back with a smile. From the distance he can make out the little boy pretending to fly, arms outstretched, running around his mom. Bug Boy smiles and returns to what he was doing.

The man spots something and freezes in his steps. He gets on all his fours, crawling on the dirt inch by inch. Then he finally spots it again; a tiny creature. A Seven-legged Vaizen Spider.

"Hi there, little fella."

He takes a quick zoomed-in photo of the creature and attaches it to a message addressed to someone aliased White Devil.

"One... less... for you... to... feel... bad. Send."

He proceeds to follow the creature. But he abruptly stops again. He carefully backs out and turns his head sideways to have a better look at a little twig that he just passed. Bug Boy lowers his face to the ground, nose almost touching. On the little twig is a tiny sac full of baby Seven-legged Spiders crawling within.

At first, he laughs. Then he cries in joy. Then he laughs again. So happy. Relieved. Redeemed. He remains like this until his kid calls out to him. Bug Boy stands up, waves to his kid, and flies up the crater slope to his family, much to the boy's delight.

**#**

.

Nanoha receives the message from Bug Boy as she walks out of the Naval Intelligence building. She checks the message walking towards her car in the guest's parking lot. She smiles seeing the photo.

"So, THIS is a Seven-legged Vaizen Spider."

She is amused. How does this creature even walk with seven legs?

Before getting into her car, Nanoha looks up. With the help of optics magic, she can see Chrono looking out the window, staring down on her.

It's not that Chrono is the type of man who is happy to spend his weekend in his office. He more than yearns to spend more time with his family; the twins and Amy. But Naval Intelligence knows no such thing as weekends nor holidays. It has to remain vigilant. The agency has to redeem itself, especially after the recent war in Vaizen, what with their own ship leading a horde of invaders back to Bureau territory and such.

Taking the opportunity while Fate is away in Vaizen, Nanoha has come to discuss her plan, to which Chrono reluctantly agreed. He will let her through the gate.

The White Devil waves to Chrono and gets inside her car. She looks at the photo of the strange spider once more. 'You are a survivor, aren't you, little spider?'

.

An hour later, Nanoha is sitting in Hayate's office.

"You know Strategic Arms is still mad at you, right? They will really go ballistic this time." Hayate comments, worried.

"But I really gotta go."

Hayate studies her friend's face. It seems Nanoha is really set to go. Hayate sighs and signs the paper, authorizing Nanoha's leave. The Bureau still hasn't dissolved the Joint Task Force, which means all forces based in Vaizen and Midchilda are still under Hayate's command... on paper, at least. Nanoha has decided to play the game and has come to Hayate for the permission, instead of taking it to the Air Armament chain of command. A really shitty thing to do to her superior officers, but still better than being listed as gone AWOL.

"Does Fate-chan agree with this?"

"She doesn't know." Nanoha shakes her head. Hayate raises her eyebrows. 'Oh boy...' Not only Strategic Arms going to be mad, but Hayate is also going to have Air Armament and Fate-chan glaring at her.

"At least let them put the limiter back on you." Hayate suggests.

"Nah~ That won't work. I probably need my full strength." Nanoha brushes off Hayate's suggestion.

"Phew... You do realize there is a chance you will be considered as gone rogue?" Hayate leans back on her chair, scratching her head. "I don't know how I'm going to explain this to the top."

"Just tell them it's the way of Takamachi."

"Screw you."

**#**

.

Staying awake, pretending to be asleep, Nanoha has endured, for hours into the late night, Fate snoring. 'This should be enough.' She waves her hand over Fate's sleeping face. No reaction. 'Good.'

Nanoha sits up. The bedsheet slips and reveals her naked body in the dark. She carefully gets out of the bed, trying not to wake Fate up. On the first step she takes, she steps on a firm yet squish bar-like object which rolls under her feet. Nanoha falls hard on her back, her head almost hitting the bedside table. Panting from the surprise, she tries to calm her racing heart down and waits for the adrenaline to wear off. She fumbles on the floor to locate the object and finds it. It's a double-headed love toy, still a bit wet on both ends' surface from the recent use. It must have rolled off at some point after the two ladies had finished the deed.

Lying on her back Nanoha sighs in relief. That could have been an extremely embarrassing death. 'Veteran flight mage slips on a dildo and dies.' She can imagine the tabloids going crazy.

With a muted groan, Nanoha stands up. She takes careful steps because she now knows there should be more of adult-use devices rolling on the floor. Having safely reached the wardrobe, she slowly dresses up, relying on the little moonlight coming in through the window. Once dressed, she reaches for deep inside the wardrobe and takes out a large travel backpack, already packed and ready to go.

Now ready, Nanoha carefully returns to the bed, by Fate's side. She gently kisses goodbye on sleeping Fate's forehead and leaves the room. She does the same with sleeping Vivio in the next room.

Making sure her letter can be easily found on the kitchen table, Nanoha takes one last look around her home. It will be a long time before she comes back.

.

Chrono shuffles nervously in front of the gate to Al Hazard. He has told the guards off for the occasion and is all alone in the almost empty Staging Dock. His facility in Midchilda has informed him of the special guest going through, so she should arrive pretty soon... And yes, there she is. He sees a twin light approaching, illuminating a humanoid figure walking in front of the light.

Nanoha comes to a stop, with a self-driven cargo loader size of a bus tagging behind.

"You sure about this, Nanoha?"

"Yes." Nanoha nods. She shakes hands with Chrono. "Look after Fate-chan while I'm gone, will you?"

"Sure."

Chrono is impressed by how Nanoha doesn't show any hesitation at all diving into the transdimensional gate to Al Hazard. The cargo loader follows its master into the gate, setting off a journey to the other side of the multi-

"On second thought-" Nanoha walks out of the gate. She rummages through her stuff in the backpack and takes out the double-headed silicone bar.

"Here. Give it to Fate. I brought it with me because it's got her scent on it, but-" Nanoha puts it in Chrono's hand. "She's gonna notice it's gone missing and might get the wrong idea." Says Nanoha. After all, she's going to a place full of younger versions of Fate. Better not risk Fate misunderstanding her intention.

"Scent? You mean it's been recently used?" Chrono asks, looking at the object he's holding.

"Don't worry. You are holding my end, not your sister's." Nanoha winks and walks back into the gate. This time for real.

Chrono scratches his head. Yes, it's his Dock so he could try to argue it's his gate. He has the authority to let Nanoha through... maybe? But how does he deliver this thing to his sister?

**#**

.

It's early morning and the birds have started chirping. Fate rolls across the bed in her sleep, but she notices the other side of the bed is vacant. At first, she feels around with her hand where Nanoha's breasts should generally be found but coming to no contact she opens her eyes. Her partner is not in bed.

"Nanoha, are you up already?"

Upon hearing no reply, Fate gets up and checks the bathroom. It is empty. She quickly puts on the silk robe over her naked body and walks out to the hall and checks another bathroom, which again is empty.

Fate checks Vivio's room, carefully opening the door just so slightly. Nanoha isn't there either.

She checks everywhere; kitchen, garage, backyard, but Nanoha is nowhere to be found.

Only when she sits down at the kitchen table, puzzled and confused, she notices the letter placed on the table.

.

Nanoha wrote:

_"Dear Fate-chan. I'm sorry to go like this, but knowing you, you would have thrown everything away to come with me._

_We won the war. Everyone did their best in their parts. Everyone clicked together like a clockwork. (Except for the time when I was crazy, but let's forget about that part.)"_

.

Nanoha had read a lot of reports on Al Hazard. The reports from the fact-finding task force. The reports from Naval Intelligence. She had watched the footage taken by Lighthouse again and again. She had even gone and talked to Red Ribbon.

For months Nanoha had spent countless nights awake, gently holding and stroking Fate's hand as Fate whimpered and cried in her nightmares.

.

_"To what end, though? Nobody failed, but we have in our hands the biggest humanitarian disaster ever in the Bureau's history. How is this even possible? I don't understand._

_Your sisters are dying. I know you've been having nightmares, crying in your sleep. This can't go on. I can't go on. We are ticking away their suffering into the forgotten realm. Nobody's doing anything!"_

.

Fate starts to cry reading up to this point. She, too, has noticed Nanoha was having nightmares. Fate has spent many nights comforting Nanoha, begging in her sleep for the girls to forgive her. Wiping tears off, Fate continues to read.

.

_"Dear Fate. I'm going to Al Hazard. I'm not sure what that will help but I will see what I can do. I need to go and make it right."_

.

Fate bursts out in reluctant laughter. Yes, of course, it's Nanoha. She has to go, otherwise, she wouldn't be Nanoha.

.

_"You'd probably want to come along, but please don't, Fate-chan. I hear it's really bad in Al Hazard and I don't want you to see the girls suffering."_

.

Fate keeps crying but nods in appreciation. Nanoha is just too kind.

.

_"One more thing. I took out all my savings AND from our joint account to buy disaster rations and supplies and stuff. Just so you know... don't get upset."_

.

Fate sighs. OK, now that is a bit going too far...

**#**

.

A couple of hours later Vivio walks into the kitchen to find Fate-mama red-eyed, sipping coffee.

"I don't see Nanoha-mama."

Fate looks up from her coffee and smiles.

"She's gone to make some new friends."

Vivio digests the information. OK...

"Erm... making friends her way or the normal way?"

"Who knows?" Fate shrugs.

"Oh boy..." Vivio starts to feel sorry for the poor souls, whoever they might be. "When will she be back?"

"Well... there's a lot of them." Fate smiles. "Come on. Let's get ready for the day."

.

The two ladies brush teeth, get dressed, eat breakfast, and do all those things women do in the morning. Vivio then realizes she doesn't have any classes this morning, so goes back to bed, complaining unlike Fate-mama Nanoha-mama knows her timetable by heart and would have told Vivio.

Dressed in her Executive Office uniform, hair combed and makeup on, Fate opens the front door to find a man sitting on the doorstep. It's the captain of Strategic Arms security team.

"Good morning, madam."

"You let her go, didn't you?!" Fate pinches the man's arm hard and twists. After a series of painful yelp from the man, she releases him.

"Well, madam... let's just say she convinced me." Says the man protecting the Takamachi family, rubbing the sore spot where Fate pinched.

They start to slowly walk towards Chief Enforcer's chauffeured limousine.

"Will you be alright with this, captain?" Fate asks, worried about the man.

"Actually, I've been demoted to lieutenant first class."

Fate is shocked.

"What?! Why?"

The lieutenant pouts.

"Well... One, I let you dive into that gate. Two, I let you go undercover in Vaizen-"

"But you weren't even in Vaizen at the time!" Fate can't believe it.

"It doesn't matter, madam. It's the principle of things that counts."

They reach Fate's limousine.

"But... but with Doomsday now gone-"

"Yeah~" The demoted man nods. "I've been thinking about the private sectors lately." He's better off quitting than suffer further humiliation.

"But... but you will have to deal with entitled brats and rich hags-" Fate stops mid-sentence, realizing Takamachi household IS comprised of an entitled brat and two rich hags.

"Well, that's the downside." He shrugs. "But I hear they pay good."

Fate is terrified. Her family has ruined this man's career. The man just smiles with no hard feelings, but Fate has to do something about it. She comes up with an idea.

"Captain, I have a proposal."

The man demoted to lieutenant raises his eyebrows. Fate continues.

"You know the Office has a team of security detail on Ixpellia? The team leader is retiring in six months. I was actually looking for a-"

The man snaps a salute with a big smile.

"Thank you, madam. I am grateful. When shall I start?"

**#**

.

The gate pulsates and Nanoha emerges with the cargo loader. She surveys the land. There is no one near the gate except decomposed corpses scattered around the area.

As expected, Al Hazard is still on fire, the sky burning and occasionally raining flames down. But not all is dead. Using optics magic Nanoha sees humanoid figures entering and emerging from what appear to be rabbit holes. 'They must be the survivors' Nanoha concludes. They are wandering about with their barriers deployed, albeit looking seriously malnourished and weakened.

The girl, Fate's favorite sister, has told Nanoha of mushrooms growing beneath the soil. Not as popular as the weed roots, but edible and high in moisture contents. The clone girl speculated if anyone is still alive, they would be relying on those mushrooms. Nanoha can confirm the girl's theory; the inhabitants of Al Hazard wander around, digging out and collecting small things. But the heat is too intense for Nanoha's comfort. She wonders how long she can stay out in the open. Red Ribbon also has warned about the occasional mana storm, which thankfully is not present for the moment.

"I gotta do something about this fire first."

"Roger. External magic added as a source." Raging Heart complies. Nanoha cannot manipulate external magic sources as effectively as Precia did; Nanoha can pull off maybe just a negligible fraction of Dr. Testarossa's capability at best. Nevertheless, at this point with the limiter gone, only a small boost to her already impossible output should suffice for the purpose.

"Exert your will, madam." Raging Heart encourages its master.

Nanoha's arrival has been noticed by the girls. The survivors start to gather and form a ring around the strange visitor. Nanoha takes a deep breath. She morphs Raising Heart into the staff mode and raises it high above her head.

"Enough!"

An impossibly large beam of magic discharge shoots up into the sky. At first, nothing happens. When Nanoha is about to be disappointed, a deafening sound of something tearing apart echoes in the sky. Within a blink of an eye, the fire in the sky is extinguished. Apart from dense black smoke still lingering, the sky has turned back to its former violet swirl.

The clone girls are, of course, shocked. They cower at the display of such immense power. Nanoha studies the disheveled girls and grimaces.

"Urgh... these masks again."

She surveys the land again. There, in the distance, she locates the Ziggurat.

"That must be the Ziggurat."

She gets up in the air and heads towards the large structure, with the cargo loader slightly lagging behind. The girls watch her go. They summon magical ears and start talking into them.

.

By now most of the girls are on the surface, wondering what happened to the burning sky. But the words spread fast, and they search the sky for the flying figure. The sight of a complete stranger flying their sky has alerted the rest of the clone girls left alive.

Mother has not returned for months. The girls in Vaizen are not talking. Nobody knows what's happened, and Alicia is gone. They have been abandoned, lost, just barely managing to keep going on for the sake of going on. And suddenly a stranger appears out of nowhere and puts the fire out? How? Why?

They start to gather at the Ziggurat where the visitor is heading.

.

Nanoha spots a platform with a throne-like seat. She lets the cargo loader gently drop to the foot of the Ziggurat. She herself lands on the former resting place for Alicia.

Nanoha surveys the exposed platform. Walls have crumbled but she could make out a passage to another larger roofless room. Over the rubble, she can see the throne she has seen from the sky. She walks towards the passage but stumbles over something. She looks down at her feet and finds the incinerated remains of some toys and stuffed dolls. She stands there for a while looking at them, overwhelmed by the tragic implication.

Trying not to look at the heap of decomposed corpses on the platform, she moves to the throne room. Exhausted from the long travel, Nanoha throws herself down onto the throne, half asleep already.

But the girls have reached her.

"Who are you?" A senior Alicia clone asks on behalf of her gathered sisters.

"Please. Let me rest a bit." Nanoha waves her off, but the girl is insistent.

"Who are you? Why are you here?"

Nanoha sighs. She points outside.

"Did you see the big thing that came with me? There are foods and stuff inside. Help yourself and leave me alone for a bit. Please."

But the girls aren't moving. They glare at her.

"Get off."

Nanoha looks at the masked girl with a puzzled expression. Get off?

"That's mother's throne. Get off!"

Nanoha jumps up and moves to the side, feeling ashamed.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"Who are you?" The senior clone asks once again.

Nanoha has to think about it for a moment. The answer has to be something simple. Something these girls would understand.

"Your sisters in Vaizen call me the flying devil."

The girls ready their weapons; beam blades and scythes. Screaming, one brave girl dives on the stranger who dared to sit in mother's throne.

The clone sisters are shocked to see the girl careening back across the floor, unconscious. They turn their heads back to face the flying devil with her staff slightly tilted forward.

"I came to help." Nanoha watches the girls getting ready to fight. "But...I guess we should talk first."

The clone girls raise their weapons, ready to attack. Some of them summon magical years and start yelling into them; alerting all sisters of this dangerous intruder.

Nanoha slightly lowers her stance, planting her back foot firmly, readying herself for the imminent combat. She smiles to herself, reminiscing.

"Look, Fate-chan. Just like how we met."

The girls launch themselves at the white-clad devil, screaming.

The throne room is suddenly filled with a flash of bright pink and crimson.

Outside, thousands and thousands and thousands of masked clone girls, who have braved and survived the inferno, rush and climb the Ziggurat, pouring onto the exposed throne room on the top, screaming at the top of their lungs.

.

.

-THE END-


	17. Epilogue

It has been some months since Nanoha left. The life in Midchilda continues, and Vaizen is recovering. Even booming, what with all the rebuilding going on.

A limousine clears the checkpoint and enters Sail Force's dock in Midchilda. Three large transport ships hover above the ground, ready to set sail, their hull shining orange from the early morning sunlight.

The limousine comes to a stop next to Teana's vintage motorbike. Teana and Red Ribbon stand close by, arguing about something.

Fate and Vivio step out of the car, greeting the two. Red Ribbon is still a bit shy in Vivio's presence and shuffles around and hides behind her enemy Teana.

"Come on, don't be shy. You've met before." Fate urges the girl, smiling. Vivio waves and says hello. Red Ribbon timidly hellos back.

"How long will you be gone, boss?" Teana asks.

"Two weeks max." Answers Fate. It's not like she is going on a vacation. The Bureau has tasked her to have a look around in Al Hazard and see what needs to be done to establish laws and orders in compliance with the Bureau Charters. The good news is that she will be talking to Nanoha a lot in the process.

.

The dock's PA system announces everyone to board. Fate kisses goodbye and goes off to board the first ship in the formation.

As soon as Fate is out of sight Teana and Red Ribbon start bickering again. Vivio intervenes and suggests they go have breakfast together. She knows a good place that's open at this hour and the two will love the pancakes.

Vivio puts on a helmet and gets in the sidecar, leaving Red Ribbon to take Teana's back, hugging her enemy from behind, her hands clutching on Teana's boobs.

**#**

.

Fate is greeted by the captain of the transport ship 'Charon'. She is led to a seat on the Bridge. She sits down and buckles up, getting ready to go.

"Captain, I'm bringing her up." One of Charon's Bridge operator informs his captain.

With a low wobbling sound, the enormous ship starts to move. The captain gets on the comm.

"Control, convoy is entering the gate."

"Convoy, may the solar wind blow in your favor." Sail Force control operator's voice fills the Bridge, wishing a good journey.

A large pulsating dimensional gate appears in front of the columns of the transport ships. With a slow woooosh, the ships disappear into the gate.

.

"Interchange in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." A Bridge operator counts down.

From the space-time fabric surrounding Midchilda, Charon and her sister ships change their travel path, immersing into the neighboring lane; the Vaizen - Al Hazard path.

"We are on the Al Hazard lane, captain." The operator informs. The captain nods and gets on the communication magic shared by all ships.

"All ships, this is convoy leader. We are now in the Vaizen - Al Hazard path. Destination: Al Hazard."

Fate can hear cheers going around the ship. She, too, is excited. The captain continues.

"Our primary mission is to deliver the first response disaster provisions. It will be the first of many such trips."

Fate nods listening to the captain. It has taken months for the Managing Directors to finally secure enough public support to dispatch aide to Al Hazard. The clone girls in Vaizen behaving themselves helped somewhat, but the biggest turning point was when the report from Lighthouse came; Al Hazard is under control. By none other than-

Somebody taps on Fate's shoulder. She turns around and sees Yuuno's smiling face. Delighted, they air-kiss and hug.

"You might have noticed we have a group of people from Disaster Recovery Corps." The captain is saying into the comm, referring to the situation assessment specialists.

"They will be quite busy once we arrive, so make sure they are rested up good."

The captain turns to face Fate. He smiles.

"Also, it is my pleasure to announce a special guest; none other than beautiful Chief Enforcer herself. Say hello when you see her wandering around."

Another round of cheers goes around the ship.

The captain is about to end the comm but realizes he's left something out. He gets back on the comm.

"Oh, I almost forgot. We also have professor Scrya on board. He will be pretty pissed when you guys trample around in Al Hazard, so be mindful where you step on."

"People always forget about me-" Yuuno complains to Fate.

"Also," The captain goes on. "Leave the ferret alone when you see one."

Yuuno rolls his eyes. "But not the ferret part."

"Aw~" Fate squeezes Yuuno's hand and smiles. "Don't be upset. Captain doesn't mean it."

.

The convoy sails through the dimensional path at the cruising speed. Suddenly a familiar voice booms inside the Bridge.

"Ahoy, Charon. Lighthouse greeting from Al Hazard boundary." Captain Griffith Lowran's sounds happy. "We have just dipped into the gate to make sure you don't get lost. We will hang around until you arrive."

"Aye, thanks, Lighthouse." Charon's captain sounds pleased, too. To sailors, it's always good to have a lighthouse guiding the way.

"Rapid Recon is making space for you to unload cargo." Griffith informs from the other end of the path. "The girls are helping, too."

Fate's eyes sparkle hearing the mention of her sisters. It's good news. They are working with Rapid Recon.

"Convoy, be warned, though." Griffith's voice changes its tone. "White Devil has firmly established herself as the de facto matron guardian of these girls."

This time Yuuno squeezes Fate's hand. He knows any news about Nanoha is music to Fate's ears.

"Any disrespect or such towards the girls will be..." Griffith pauses searching for the right words. He gives up. "Just... don't learn the lesson the hard way, OK?"

Fate bursts out laughing.

"Well, that's Nanoha for you." Yuuno smiles, too.

"Don't worry, Lighthouse." Charon's captain winks at Fate. "We have Chief Enforcer on board. Nobody will dare mistreat her sisters."

.

Yuuno leans in, his eyes reminiscing.

"It feels like we are back to the old days." He smiles. "You and me. Sailing onboard a large ship. To Nanoha."

Fate realizes it, too.

"Ah, yes. I remember that." It was many years ago. That was a rather serious situation at the time, though. "That's how we met the Woklenritters and became friends with Hayate-chan."

The two turn their eyes to the space outside through the Bridge's reinforced front window, remembering the past event.

"I bet Nanoha's made some new friends this time, too." Fate giggles like a little girl.

"Hang on, convoy." Captain Lowran's voice grabs Fate's attention. Griffith sounds confused.

"Rapid Recon says the girls are sending out... gift? I don't- Oh! Aw~ what a sight!"

.

The convoy sails through the dark transdimensional tunnel connecting the two distant worlds. From afar, a large swarm of golden orbs flies towards the massive transport ships. They come closer and closer. At last, the orbs surround the ships, like fireflies, illuminating the otherwise pitch-black space inside the travel path with their golden luminescence.

.

.

-THE REALLY END-

.

.

* * *

_Thanks for reading._

_I was fascinated by the concept of TSAB as depicted in Strikers and post-Strikers materials; the structure, the organizations, and how those different subunits of TSAB join together to solve problems. I wished the franchise would explore that aspect further, but they instead opted to throw in more characters and focus on their stories. _

_When "Mahou Senki Lyrical Nanoha : Force" was announced I was really really excited. "Senki" literally means war (sen) saga (ki). I thought we'd see a super grand-scale slugfest involving the many branches of TSAB. That's what I hoped we were getting in the form of Senki : Force._

_And so... I was immensely disappointed by how Force turned out to be. It's an interesting story on its own, but not exactly what I wanted. _

_So, I had decided to write a story for my own entertainment. And voila here's the result. Or rather... a re-write of the result._

_This whole thing is actually a re-write of a 90K words long screenplay that I wrote early this year. Only after the completion of the screenplay I learned FanFiction does not allow script format submissions, LOL. _

_But it's been a fun experience. I decided I'd use the screenplay version as more of an outline (a very long-ass outline) and started writing the novel out. There were some interesting challenges. Here's one for example: In my script format draft Red Ribbon is simply referred to as Senior Alicia Clone B. That obviously won't work in any novel format. I had to give her an identifying feature. Hence the red polka dot ribbon. For the sole purpose of giving her a ribbon I ended up spewing out a 3000 words scene. For a single ribbon._

_Anyway, tanks for reading. I hope you've enjoyed it. I sure had fun writing it. _

_By the way, Hayate rocks._


End file.
